


The Mysterious Glow of a Murderer

by TheEmeraldGirl23



Series: The "Glow" [2]
Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Cuddling, F/F, Flashback, Fluff, French Kissing, I Love You, Implied Sexual Content, Murder Mystery, POV Third Person Omniscient, Rescuing an OC, Sharing a Bed, Soulmate Necklaces, Word Count: Over 40.000, i still have no idea what i'm doing, just tagging everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 43,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25017832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEmeraldGirl23/pseuds/TheEmeraldGirl23
Summary: Professor Wellard was dead in cold blood at the floor of her classroom, killed by her own student, Jordan Conners, who was being controlled by Mr. Madison Clive, an evil businessman with a knack for powerful magic. Join Akko and co. as they try to uncover the mystery of a nice professor and the unsuspecting first-year student who killed her unwillingly.
Relationships: Barbara Parker/Lotte Yanson, Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari, Hannah England/Amanda O'Neill, Ursula Callistis | Chariot du Nord/Croix Meridies
Series: The "Glow" [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782148
Comments: 36
Kudos: 46





	1. The Gunshot Heard Round Luna Nova

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is the first chapter of the second part of The "Glow" Series, if you haven't read the first part make sure you do so. Since school is coming up again soon, I'm not going to have as much time to upload, but I'll try with either weekly or twice a week updates being Tuesday and/or Saturday, but I can't promise that. Anyway, enjoy reading, I'm sure you'll find it quite interesting. 
> 
> Every interaction Jordan has with Mr. Clive is in thought, that's why it's italicized, it says, ______ said because they're talking to each other, just in thought form, just letting you know in case you get confused.

A new first-year student at Luna Nova, Jordan Conners walked into the classroom of the new professor of Magical Arts, Professor Wellard. She knew what she had to do, a voice in her head by the name of Mr. Madison Clive told her. 

_“Remember your mission, all it takes is one shot from your wand, and that professor is as good as gone,”_ Mr. Clive said, invading Jordan’s thoughts. 

_“I don’t know if I can do this, all I wanted was to go to Luna Nova because it’s the school where my two role models go,”_ Jordan said to him. 

_“Yes, yes, I understand, you wanted to go to the same school as the famed Atsuko Kagari and Diana Cavendish, right? I’ll let you go on your way, but you still have to do this for me,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“I don’t understand, why me? Why me of all people to do this job for you?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“Because Jordan, you’re unsuspecting, no one would suspect you, no one would expect a student to kill their own professor right?”_ Mr. Clive asked. 

_“But still, why is it that you want me to kill a professor?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“This particular one has done terrible things to me in the past,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“So this is out of revenge? That makes this act even worse,”_ Jordan said. 

_“I see, you are wavering, scared, I know you don’t want to do this, so I’ll make it easy,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“How?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“You’ll see,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

Jordan was knocked out of her thought conversation with Mr. Clive by Professor Wellard. 

“Hello, Ms. Conners, it’s late, is there something you need help with?” Professor Wellard asked. 

“Oh, yeah, I was wondering if you could help me with something,” Jordan said. 

“Is it an assignment?” Professor Wellard asked. 

“Yeah, I was wondering if you can guide me through the landscaping in my painting, I can’t quite get the lining right with my wand,” Jordan said. 

“Okay sure, take out your painting and I’ll help you,” Professor Wellard said. 

Jordan was about to take the painting out of her bag when she got caught in another thought by Mr. Clive. 

_“What is it now?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“Just take out the painting and follow my lead,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“Okay, I just hope you know what you’re doing,”_ Jordan said. 

_“Oh, silly girl, I know exactly what I’m doing,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

Jordan took out her painting and set it down in front of Professor Wellard, it showed a painting of Luna Nova, with some lines drawn crooked and unsymmetrical. 

“Oh, I see, that’s an easy fix, you were probably holding your wand unevenly, hold your wand out in its normal position,” Professor Wellard instructed. 

Jordan grabbed her wand and held it out, her form wasn’t very good at all and the wand was shaky in her hands, it was clear she was nervous. 

“Are you nervous?” Professor Wellard asked. 

“Yeah, a little,” Jordan said. 

“No wonder why your lines are messed up, you have to be relaxed, art can only be done properly when you are in the right mindset,” Professor Wellard said. 

“So what should I do?” Jordan asked. 

“Take a few deep breaths, it can help clear your mind,” Professor Wellard said. 

So Jordan did exactly that, she took a few deep breaths, it was calming, but what she didn’t know was that during this Mr. Clive took over her body. 

“Why hello, Professor Wellard,” Mr, Clive said in a deep husky voice. 

“Wait, what? I would recognize that voice anywhere, Madison Clive, but how?” Professor Wellard asked. 

“Quite simple actually, this girl is so naïve, she was so unsuspecting that she didn’t even question it when I invaded her thoughts, but that was her downfall,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Why Ms. Conners out of everyone? She was my favorite student,” Professor Wellard said. 

“Oh, then doing this in her body, will hurt you so much more,” Mr. Clive cackled. 

“What do you mean?” Professor Wellard asked. 

Mr. Clive lifted up Jordan’s wand and pointed it straight at Professor Wellard. 

**“Murowa,”** Mr. Clive cast. 

It wasn’t like any old **Murowa** though, it was much more powerful than that, this was enough to kill. Professor Wellard fell to the ground with a hard thud, blood spilling out from her body and everybody heard a gunshot. Mr. Clive returned Jordan’s body and left her to see the body of Professor Wellard. She dropped her wand and immediately went to check her pulse, there wasn’t one. She realized what she did. 

“Did I kill Professor Wellard? No, no, I couldn’t have,” Jordan said, running out of the classroom sobbing, without even grabbing her wand. 

* * *

The red, green, and blue teams were all sleeping when they heard a gunshot. Akko shot up out of bed. Lotte sat up sleepily and turned on the light with her wand, Sucy was wearing her earplugs so she didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary and just kept sleeping. 

“What was that?” Akko asked. 

“It sounded like a gunshot,” Lotte said.

“A gunshot? Who would have a gun at a magic school?” Akko asked. 

“You know you can shoot magic bullets out of your wand right? Don’t do it though, it’s highly forbidden,” Lotte warned. 

“You can? I wasn’t planning on it anyway, where did it come from?” Akko asked. 

“I don’t know, but it sounded like it came from a classroom,” Lotte said. 

“Let’s go see then,” Akko said. 

“It’s late, but fine, we’re awake now anyway, what about Sucy?” Lotte asked. 

“Don’t worry about her, just let her sleep,” Akko said. 

Akko and Lotte put their uniforms on and left the room. They saw the blue and green teams too, their necklaces were glowing quite bright, well, Hannah, Amanda, Barbara and Lotte’s were, Constanze and Jasminka’s, not so much and well, you already know about Akko and Diana’s. 

“Am I dreaming? Because I swear I heard a gunshot, someone pinch me,” Amanda said. 

Hannah happily obliged and pinched her to which she said, 

“Ow! I didn’t mean literally,” 

“Well, at least, now you know you're not dreaming,” Hannah said. 

“We heard it too,” Akko said. 

“So we all heard a gunshot, but from where?” Diana asked. 

“I don’t know but Lotte said it sounded like it came from a classroom,” Akko said. 

“So we check the classrooms, easy,” Amanda said. 

“But what if a professor was killed, what do we do then, huh?” Hannah asked. 

“That can’t be the case, it was probably a misfire,” Amanda said. 

“That’s plausible, but we can’t rule out the chance either,” Diana said. 

“That’s crazy, who would be crazy enough to shoot a professor?” Barbara asked. 

“Yeah, I agree, that does sound crazy, but it’s not completely out of left field,” Lotte said. 

“I guess you’re right, it’s a possibility,” Barbara said. 

“So which classroom do we check first?” Amanda asked. 

“It sounded like it came from the first years' classrooms, so we can start there,” Lotte said. 

They went to the first-year classrooms and all of them were empty with the light off, except Professor Wellard’s, so they walked in to see her lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. 

“Oh my god,” Hannah commented first, horrified. 

“You were right,” Amanda said, looking at the unconscious professor’s body. 

“It’s not like I wanted to be,” Hannah said. 

“Yeah,” Amanda said, rubbing the back of her neck in nervousness. 

“That’s Professor Wellard, right? The new professor of Magical Arts?” Barbara asked, also looking at the body. 

“Yeah, she just started teaching a few months ago, I don’t understand why someone would kill her, some of the first-years I’ve met that take the class have all told me that she was really nice,” Lotte responded. 

“I don’t get it either,” Diana said. 

“Hey! Is that a wand? Is it hers?” Akko asked, pointing to the wand next to the professor’s body. 

“It could be, but I don’t think so, there’s another one sitting on her desk,” Diana said, looking at the wand on the professor’s desk. 

“So then, who’s is it?” Amanda asked. 

“It’s probably the killer’s,” Constanze wrote on her board and held up. 

The others looked at it and agreed. 

“We should tell the other professors,” Diana said. 

“There’s no need,” Professor Ursula said from behind them. 

The eight of them turned to Professor Ursula. 

“Professor, you heard it too?” Akko asked. 

“I think almost everyone did, I came to see what it was, just like I assume you girls did,” Professor Ursula said. 

“Can someone tell me what happened here?” Professor Finnelan asked. 

“Well, we were all sleeping when we heard a gunshot, so we all came to see where it came from, we looked through the classrooms and stumbled across this scene, I’m not sure who did it though,” Diana told. 

“So we have a dead professor and no one knows what happened?” Professor Finnelan asked skeptically. 

“Pretty much,” Amanda said. 

“What are we going to do about the body?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“We’ll find a way to remove it, don’t worry about it. The eight of you, however, need to go back to your dorms, it’s way past curfew,” Professor Finnelan said. 

So they returned to their dorms and Professor Ursula and Professor Finnelan took care of the body using a spell, but the real question is who did it? 

  
  
  
  



	2. Meeting the Murderer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus update today, I'm just on that grind. I'm working on chapter eight now. 
> 
> My headcanon for the phones is that they just kept the ones Croix gave them, so yeah, they still have modern technology.
> 
> The Six Great Houses are also taken from The Mending Hearts Series

Akko and Diana were walking to class together holding hands when they heard someone call out their names. 

“You’re Atsuko Kagari and Diana Cavendish, right?” the voice asked. 

The brunette and blonde let go of each other’s hands and turned to face the girl. 

“Just call me Akko,” Akko said. 

“Yeah, I’m Diana, do you need something?” Diana asked. 

“My name is Jordan Conners and I just want to say I’m a big fan of you two,” Jordan said. 

“Fans of  _ us _ ?” Akko questioned. 

“Yeah, I saw you two on that broadcast, it was really cool how you guys shot down that missile, it was really inspiring,” Jordan said. 

“Well, thank you, I guess,” the two of them said in unison. 

They both chuckled at the fact they said it at the same time. 

“Maybe that shopkeeper was right,” Akko said. 

“What shopkeeper?” Jordan asked. 

“The shopkeeper of  _ Last Wednesday Society _ . When we first found out we were soulmates, the shopkeeper commented on the large flash linking our necklaces created, saying ‘we have a strong connection,’” Akko answered. 

“Akko, you can’t just say that to anyone we meet, what if they use that information against us,” Diana chastised. 

“Do you really think she’ll do anything? She looks completely harmless,” Akko said, looking at the shorter dark brown-haired and purple-eyed girl. 

“I promise I won’t do anything, I think you two being soulmates is great,” Jordan said. 

“See? I told you,” Akko said. 

“Okay, fine, but we have to go, we’re going to be late,” Diana said. 

“Go on without me, I’ll catch up,” Akko said. 

“Okay, if you say so,” Diana said. 

She kissed Akko goodbye and went to class. 

“So, I was wondering if you can help me with my metamorphosis magic,” Jordan said. 

“Really? You want  _ me  _ to help you?” Akko asked. 

“Yeah,” Jordan said. 

“Okay, then meet me in the courtyard after school, I have to get to class,” Akko said. 

She waved to Jordan and ran off, luckily, she was able to get to class on time, it was cutting it close though. This left Jordan alone in the hallway, she had a free period and went to sit down in the courtyard.

_ “The two of them are soulmates, huh? That’s even better,”  _ Mr. Clive invaded Jordan’s thoughts again. 

_ “What do you want?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “We’re going to stop the New Nine Witches before they find out what we did,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “But they did nothing wrong, why do you want to stop them?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “Because they’re the ones who have the best chance of finding out,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “You can’t do anything though, is that why you wanted me? Because I’m on the inside?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “That’s part of the reason, yes, I need you to get close to them, that way they won’t suspect you,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Well, Akko agreed to give me a magic lesson later, is that good?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “I heard, yes, that will be a good chance,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “What do you even do for a living?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “If you must know, I’m the CEO of a pretty big company in London,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Which one?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “That’s not important, you should go, Ms. Kagari’s class will be finished soon, won’t it?”  _ Mr. Clive asked. 

_ “Yes, in a few minutes, I think,”  _ Jordan said. 

_ “Okay, talk to you after,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

Mr. Clive left Jordan’s thoughts and the bell rang. She saw Akko waving to her and she walked up to her. 

“Hey, Jordan, ready?” Akko asked. 

Jordan was kind of spacing out, so she didn’t quite hear her. 

“Jordan?” Akko asked again. 

Jordan realized who she was talking to. 

“Oh, sorry, yeah, I’m good,” Jordan said. 

“So you wanted help with metamorphosis magic, right? Test it on me,” Akko said. 

“You want me to test it on  _ you _ ?” Jordan asked. 

“Yeah, see if you can turn me into a mouse or something, I’m really used to that form,” Akko said. 

“You’re used to being a mouse?” Jordan asked, confused. 

“Yeah, you won’t have any idea how many times I’ve accidentally turned myself into a mouse with the spell, although sometimes it was intentional, like at the Samhain Festival last year or the time I ran along the side of the missile,” Akko said. 

“I suppose, should I ask your soulmate about it?” Jordan asked. 

“You can if you want, she’ll tell you about all my blunders, I’m not ashamed of my mistakes, that’s what made me who I am,” Akko asked. 

“You don’t get what you dream, you get what you work for, right?” Jordan asked. 

“ **Phaidoari Afairynghor** , the second word of Arcturus, but how do you know the meaning of it?” Akko asked. 

“I’ve researched them, anyway, are you sure you want me to cast it on you?” Jordan asked. 

“Yeah, get on with it already,” Akko said. 

Jordan took out her wand and pointed it at Akko. 

**“Metamorphie Faciesse,”** she cast. 

It backfired and turned her into a mouse instead. 

“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Jordan squeaked in her mouse form. 

“That one’s happened to me before, here,  **Metamorphie Faciesse** ,” Akko cast. 

It turned Jordan back into a person. 

“Thanks a lot,” Jordan said. 

“You’re welcome, now try again,” Akko said. 

**“Metamorphie Faciesse,”** Jordan cast again. 

This time she turned into a flying elephant and started flying up before hitting the same spire Akko hit the first time and deflated back into a human. 

“That’s happened to me too,” Akko said. 

“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Jordan said, disheartened. 

Akko put a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. 

“Hey! Do you think I would be here if I gave up the first time I failed? What about my soulmate, do you think she would be the top student if she gave up on her first try?” Akko asked. 

“No! You both kept going despite failing the first time, you both lost your magic due to Chariot, your guy’s idol, but you both fought to regain it, it might’ve taken you a bit longer than her, but still,” Jordan said. 

“See? That’s exactly what I mean, you can’t just give up because you're not perfect from the start, you have to keep working at it,” Akko said. 

“I get it, I have to keep going even when it’s tough, okay, let’s try again!” Jordan said with more determination now. 

“You got this!” Akko encouraged. 

**“Metamorphie Faciesse,”** Jordan cast. 

It just gave her bunny ears. 

“Damn it,” Jordan said. 

“It’s okay, try again,” Akko said. 

Jordan was about to cast the spell again when Akko felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. 

“Wait, hold that thought,” Akko said, putting her phone to her ear. 

“Where are you? All of us are waiting for you in the café,” Diana said. 

“I’m helping Jordan with metamorphosis magic,” Akko replied. 

“The first year we met earlier? She asked you for help with metamorphosis magic?” Diana asked. 

“Yeah, I know, I was surprised too. Give me like five minutes, I’ll meet you guys,” Akko said. 

“Okay, see you then,” Diana said and then hung up. 

Akko put her phone back in her pocket. 

“Sorry, Jordan, I have to go, see you later, keep trying with your magic, you’ll be bound to get better,” Akko said. 

“Thank you for the help Akko,” Jordan said. 

“No problem, glad to help,” Akko said before running back inside. 

This left Jordan outside alone again and when that happens it’s usually when Mr. Clive shows up and just like that, he’s in Jordan’s thoughts again. 

_ “That was really nice of her, gave you some encouraging words too,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “I know, makes me more confused as to why you would go after her,”  _ Jordan said. 

_ “You of all people don’t need to know my motives,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “I need to know some things, at least, I know you’re a CEO, so how old are you?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “Okay, fine, I’m 32, if you must ask,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “What’s your favorite color?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “Really? It’s tea green, like Ms. Cavendish’s hair highlights,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “What about your favorite employee?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “A woman named Rathika Chavla,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Chavla? Isn’t that one of the Six Great Houses?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “Yes, have any more questions? I need to go,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Many, but you can leave if you have to,”  _ Jordan said. 

Mr. Clive left Jordan’s thoughts and she went back to her dorm where she saw her roommates, Rachel Jackson, and Jessica Liu, who were on the indigo team along with her. 

“Hey, Jordan, where were you?” Rachel asked. 

“I was practicing metamorphosis magic with Akko Kagari,” Jordan said. 

“That idiot second-year that surprised everyone when she saved the world and shot down that missile with the top student Diana Cavendish?” Jessica asked. 

“I wouldn’t call her an idiot, but yeah,” Jordan said. 

“I heard that the two of them are soulmates,” Rachel said. 

“Who?” Jordan asked. 

“Who else? Akko and Diana,” Rachel said. 

“Really? That clumsy idiot and the top student?” Jessica scoffed. 

“I know, it’s crazy,” Rachel said. 

Meanwhile, in the café, 

“Achoo,” Akko sneezed. 

“Hey, Akko, are you okay?” Diana asked. 

But just as she asked this she also sneezed. 

“Is someone talking about you two behind your backs or what?” Amanda asked. 

“That’s just a myth,” Hannah said. 

“No, it’s actually a quite common belief, mainly in my country,” Akko said. 

“See? I’m not stupid,” Amanda said. 

“I never said you were,” Hannah said. 

Lotte and Barbara were reading Nightfall together and weren’t paying any attention to the conversation. 

“So, did you manage to help Jordan?” Diana asked. 

“I think so, but she’s still having trouble, just like I did in the beginning, she was actually about to try it again when you called me,” Akko said. 

“Sorry, I think she just has to keep trying, she’ll get it eventually, just like you did,” Diana said. 

“Wow! That shopkeeper was really right,” Akko said. 

“Huh?” Diana asked. 

“You know what I said to her before I came back here? ‘Keep trying with your magic, you’ll be bound to get better,’” Akko said. 

“Sure, we have a strong connection, but don’t all soulmates?” Diana asked. 

“Well, yeah, but I think ours is stronger then Hannah and Amanda’s or Barbara and Lotte’s, though,” Akko said. 

They were too caught up in their own conversations to hear that though, Jasminka and Constanze heard though. 

“What makes you think that?” Constanze wrote on a note and passed it to Akko. 

“Well, for first, look at how bright their necklaces are glowing,” Akko said, pointing to the two couples. 

“You think they’re soulmates?” Jasminka asked. 

“That’s painfully obvious,” Diana and Akko said in unison again. 

“You have no idea how much Lotte tells me about Barbara and how much they love Nightfall, as much as I like to talk about my soulmate too, it gets kind of annoying,” Akko said. 

“You like to talk about me?” Diana asked, playfully nudging Akko’s arm. 

“Yeah, of course, you don’t talk about me?” Akko asked. 

“Well, yeah, but not nearly to the level I get pestered by my teammates about Lotte and Amanda,” Diana said. 

“You get it, it’s driving me insane, I wish they would just realize it already,” Akko said. 

“I feel the same way,” Diana said. 

Akko stared at her soulmate for a moment, eyes flickering to her lips. 

“I have an idea, kiss me,” Akko said. 

“What do you think that will accomplish?” Diana asked. 

“Just follow my lead,” Akko said. 

“Okay, I trust you,” Diana said. 

Akko leaned in and kissed her soulmate, and she smiled against her lips, it was gentle at first but it quickly started getting more heated, she out a slight moan, then she glanced over at the other two couples to see if they noticed, but they didn’t, so she stopped, stood up out of her chair, grabbed Diana’s hand and pulled her up too. She brought both of their arms up above their heads. 

“Everyone!” Akko yelled out. 

This caught people’s attention. 

“I want to say, Diana Cavendish is my soulmate and I love her,” Akko declared. 

“I knew it!” one of the other students in the café exclaimed.

This also tore the other two couple’s attention away from each other. 

“Wow! Bold, Akko, I didn’t think you had it in you,” Amanda said. 

“Finally, that’s what it took to tear your attention from Hannah, me standing up and declaring my love for my soulmate, you’re so whipped and you don’t even know what you have with each other,” Akko said, upset. 

“I’m sorry, Akko, I didn’t realize how much that bothered you,” Lotte said. 

“You too, don’t think you’re off the hook, you’re so enamored with Barbara, you two were reading Nightfall together this whole time, I don’t think you even heard a sliver of our conversation,” Akko said, pointing a finger at Lotte. 

“Akko’s right, you didn’t even realize that she and Diana were basically making out in front of you,” Sucy commented. 

“What? Really?” Lotte asked. 

“Yeah, it gets on my nerves, let’s go,” Akko said, grabbing on her soulmate’s arm. 

“Where?” Diana asked. 

“I want to spend the night in your room, I’m tired of this,” Akko said. 

“What if the professors find out?” Diana asked. 

“They won’t, let’s go,” Akko said. 

Akko basically dragged her soulmate out of the café and back to her room. They both changed into more comfortable clothes and got in her bed. 

“Well, this is certainly a position,” Diana chuckled nervously as she felt her heart rate spike. 

“Yeah, you’ve never had me in your bed before, not like you’ve been in mine though,” Akko said, wrapping her arms around Diana’s warm body. 

“Um, Akko?” Diana asked. 

“Sorry,” Akko said, letting go of her. 

Diana just brought her closer and wrapped her arms around her. 

“It’s okay, I like your arms around me,” Diana said. 

“Then I should do it more often, you deserve all my affection,” Akko said, wrapping her arms around her soulmate’s body again. 

“I never got a chance to answer you before, but let it be known, I love you too,” Diana said. 

“I know,” Akko said, snuggling closer to her. 

They fell asleep in each other’s arms. Soon after, Hannah and Barbara walked into the room, but Akko and Diana could care less about them. Akko was still angry, but just being in her soulmate’s arms was enough to calm her down, so she forgot about them, even if it was only for the night. 


	3. Mr. Madison Clive

Madison Clive walked into another boring day of work as the CEO of Clive Enterprises in the bustling city center of London. As much as he liked to boss his employees around, he hated doing it without his morning cup of tea. 

“Rathika, get my tea will you,” Mr. Clive said to his assistant. 

“Right away, sir,” Rathika said. 

She left to go to the break room and returned with a cup of tea in her hands to give to Mr. Clive. He gladly took it and went to his office. He sat down at his desk, opened his computer, and started typing away. He soon got bored of this and went to check his emails, after that, he got up and stretched and called Rathika. 

“Rathika, can you come to my office please?” Mr. Clive asked. 

“Sure, I’ll be there right away,” Rathika said. 

She got up from her desk at her cubicle and walked into Mr. Clive’s office. 

“Tell me you have some good news,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Yes, my family is working on some sealing spells that could be a good addition to your already powerful magic,” Rathika said. 

“Great, that’s just what I wanted to hear, but how are you doing this, wouldn’t the head be against it?” Mr. Clive asked. 

“Oh, Rakstha is clueless to it all, this is all just me and my cousin Arshand’s doing,” Rathika said. 

“But isn’t Arshand particularly close with Rakstha’s brother, Roshan, what if he snitches?” Mr. Clive asked. 

“Don’t worry, Roshan is also on our side, you have nothing to worry about Mr. Clive,” Rathika said. 

“Thank you, Rathika, this is why you’re my favorite employee,” Mr. Clive said. 

“You’re welcome,” Rathika said. 

“You’re free to leave now,” Mr. Clive said, shooing her away. 

He went back to his computer and then remembered his favorite pawn to play with, the unsuspecting first-year witch at Luna Nova, Jordan Conners. He invaded her thoughts again. 

_ “Hello, Jordan,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “What do you want? I’m in the middle of class, Magical Arts to be exact, the class that was taught by the professor you killed,”  _ Jordan said, angry. 

_ “Oh, no need to be feisty, and technically you’re the one who killed her, it was done through your body,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “It wasn’t my fault, but whatever, why do you keep invading my thoughts?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “Why do you always think I’m out to do something evil, I can’t just talk to you?”  _ Mr. Clive asked back. 

_ “You wouldn’t invade my thoughts if that were the case, now would you, you would call me or something,”  _ Jordan said. 

_ “That’s true, so who’s the replacement professor?”  _ Mr. Clive asked. 

_ “A teacher named Professor Lefevre, do you know her?”  _ Jordan asked. 

Mr. Clive remembered his university days back at the University of London, one of the first higher institutions to adopt a magic program. He had a teacher by that last name, a descendant of the Lefevre family, another of The Six Great Houses, he taught him all about familiar magic and how to tame magic animals, he remembered having a lot of fun taking that class, he might’ve majored in business but his minor in magic studies allowed him to take that class. 

_ “Yes, I had a teacher in university by the same last name, but the professor was a man, another descendant of The Six Great Houses, perhaps?”  _ Mr. Clive asked. 

_ “Yeah, it could be, Lefevre is another one of The Six Great Houses, right?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “Yes, it is, but I don’t know much about The Six Great Houses, maybe you can ask Ms. Cavendish, she’s a descendant of two of The Six Great Houses,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Two?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “Yeah, she took the last name Cavendish from her mother’s side, since that’s the family she wants to be the head of, but her dad was a Reinhardt,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Really? Okay, then, maybe I should ask her,”  _ Jordan said. 

_ “It can also be a chance to get closer to her as well,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Why are you so keen on me getting close to the New Nine Witches?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “Didn’t I tell you? It’s so they don’t suspect you of the murder of Professor Wellard,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Who was Professor Wellard to you? Why do you care so much?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “She was someone very important to me before she betrayed me, that is,” _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “She betrayed you? How?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “You’ll find out soon enough, I’ll leave you alone now,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

Mr. Clive left Jordan’s thoughts and went back to his work. 

* * *

Jordan’s class finished and she went to the café, where she saw the Nine New Witches talking amongst each other, she walked up to them. 

“Hello,” Jordan greeted. 

They turned to look at her. 

“Oh, hey, Jordan, how are you doing?” Akko asked. 

“I’m good,” Jordan replied. 

“So, this is the Jordan you were talking about?” Amanda asked. 

“Yeah, everyone meet Jordan Conners,” Akko introduced. 

“I’m first-year student Jordan Conners, please treat me well,” Jordan bowed. 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Amanda,” Amanda said. 

“You’re really good with a broom, right?” Jordan asked. 

“Yeah, you could say that,” Amanda said. 

“You should teach me some time,” Jordan said. 

“I’m happy to, not sure you can keep up though,” Amanda said. 

“Getting cocky, I see. I’m Hannah, by the way,” Hannah said, nudging Amanda’s side. 

“Nice to meet you,” Jordan said. 

“I’m Lotte,” Lotte said, pushing her glasses up her nose. 

“You’re the one who’s good with spirits,” Jordan said. 

“I know my way around communicating with spirits, yeah, how do you know that?” Lotte asked. 

“I’ve looked through some yearbooks,” Jordan said. 

“Then, you must know I’m good with potions, Sucy,” Sucy said. 

“Yep,” Jordan said. 

“Barbara, nice to meet you,” Barbara said. 

“Jasminka, pleasure,” Jasminka said. 

“Constanze,” Constanze wrote on her board. 

“Well, now you know everyone,” Akko said. 

“I guess I do, but I really came here to ask Ms. Cavendish a question,” Jordan said. 

“Please just call me Diana, I don’t like when people my age address me by my last name, what do you need?” Diana asked. 

“What do you know about The Six Great Houses?” Jordan asked. 

“Just because I come from two doesn’t mean I have extensive knowledge, but I do know some basic things,” Diana said. 

“Wait! You’re a descendant of  _ two  _ of The Six Great Houses?” Akko asked. 

“Didn’t I tell you that before, Akko? My dad was a Reinhardt,” Diana said. 

“Oh, right, when you told me why you didn’t believe in soulmates,” Akko said. 

“Oh, yeah, there was a time you didn’t believe. Everybody thought you had a really icy-cold heart and weren’t capable of love,” Jordan said. 

“But someone changed that,” Diana said, looking at Akko smiling at her. 

“Only took you a whole year to realize,” Akko chuckled. 

“I’m a bit inexperienced when it comes to love, I’ve never really been affectionate towards others, nor have others been to me, I’ve really only been given affection by my parents,” Diana said. 

“Even more reason you deserve all of mine,” Akko said. 

“So, what kind of things do you know exactly?” Jordan asked. 

“I really only know what they specialize in, like for example my family specializes in healing magic, I don’t know much about my dad’s side, but they are really experienced when it comes to battle and fighting. The Lefevre’s specialize in familiar magic, The Chavla’s are masters at sealing magic, The Pavlova’s with homunculi, and The Fei’s with soul thaumaturgy and the study of soulmates,” Diana said. 

“Do you know the current heads?” Jordan asked. 

“Well, of course, my aunt Daryl Cavendish, my grandfather on my dad’s side, Ulfric Reinhardt, Amelia Lefevre, Rakstha Chavla, Sophia Pavlova, and Fei Wong Reed,” Diana said. 

“Why is your aunt the head anyway?” Akko asked. 

“She was just the next in line after my mother died, she’s more of a proxy head anyway, until I’m old enough to do the ritual again and become the real head,” Diana said. 

“Oh, that makes sense,” Akko said. 

“Do you know anything else?” Jordan said. 

“Sorry, I’m not particularly well versed in the subject, I bet some books in the library can give you more information, though,” Diana said. 

“Okay, thanks anyway, Diana,” Jordan said. 

“My pleasure,” Diana said. 

Jordan walked away and left the nine witches to talk by themselves. 

“Why do you think Jordan wanted to know about The Six Great Houses?” Akko asked. 

“She probably heard I was a descendant of two of them and wanted to ask me about them. You have no idea how often that I get asked about them, it’s like what they care about is my last name and they assume I know everything about The Six Great Houses,” Diana said. 

“That’s stupid, they know that you’re more than just your last name, right?” Akko asked.

“It seems they see me as a Cavendish before they see me as Diana,” Diana said. 

“That’s so dumb, haven’t people ever heard not to judge a book by their cover,” Akko said, exasperated. 

“Apparently not, a lot of people still think of me as this stuck-up aristocrat that only cares about her studies and knows everything that there is to know. Somehow, my last name is all people need to make their assumptions about me,” Diana said. 

“I’m so sorry, you don’t deserve that, at all,” Akko said. 

“It’s fine, I’m used to it at this point, it doesn’t bother me anymore,” Diana said. 

“That still doesn’t make it okay, though,” Hannah said. 

“Exactly,” Akko agreed. 

“You don’t seem as mad as you did yesterday,” Hannah said. 

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m still mad that you haven’t realized what you have, but I know I can’t force it, so I’m just going to ignore it,” Akko said, crossing her arms. 

“What do you mean?” Hannah asked. 

“Come on, Hannah, you’re more oblivious about this than Akko was and she had more clues,” Diana said. 

“Hey! I wasn’t that bad was I?” Akko asked. 

“No, honey, I’m just saying that you had more clues in the beginning and it still took you nearly the whole year, but somehow Hannah is taking longer,” Diana told Akko. 

“But what was I supposed to do? You didn’t wear your necklace, I think I fared pretty well despite that. They are literally sitting next to each other with their necklaces glowing bright like crazy and still haven’t realized it,” Akko said. 

“You know, I’m not quite sure myself, it’s perplexing how they haven’t figured it out yet,” Diana said. 

Jordan walked up behind them again. 

“I know, it’s like right in front of them,” Jordan said. 

Akko and Diana turned to her, everyone else was caught up in their own conversation to notice. 

“It’s driving me nuts, I wish Lotte and Amanda would get it already,” Akko said. 

“Same, but with my teammates, gosh I thought I was going crazy before I realized I was your soulmate, thinking how much you affected me, but this is worse,” Diana said, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, but I realized I had another question I wanted to ask, I don’t know who else to talk to,” Jordan said. 

“Okay, Shoot,” Akko said. 

Jordan felt herself tense up remembering what she did a few days ago. 

“Are you okay?” Akko asked. 

“Sorry, just a bad memory,” Jordan said. 

“Is it something I said?” Akko asked. 

“Yeah, when you said ‘Shoot,’” Jordan said. 

“Sorry, I just meant to ask the question, I didn’t mean to trigger you or anything,” Akko said. 

“I know, I know, just, do you know about a man named Madison Clive?” Jordan asked. 

“That’s the CEO of Clive Enterprises, in London, right?” Akko asked her soulmate. 

“As far as I’m aware, but how do you know that information Akko?” Diana asked. 

“I was looking at a reference guide of powerful magic users and saw his name, it kind of stood out,” Akko replied. 

“Yeah, he does stand out in the crowds, he’s in the top ten most powerful magic users in the world list at eight, just below the six heads and Chariot,” Diana said. 

“He’s that powerful? Where are you on the list?” Akko asked. 

“I barely make the top one hundred, ninety-eight, I’m pretty sure, although now I might not even be in the top one hundred anymore, there are many magic users who are more powerful than I am,” Diana said. 

“That’s still pretty impressive, I probably don’t even rank in the top one thousand,” Akko said. 

“You know what, let’s look it up, we have phones for a reason, just check your profile, it should say what rank you are in the world,” Diana said. 

“Really? It shows that kind of stuff?” Akko said. 

“I might not be the best with technology, but at least I know that much,” Diana said. 

Akko took her phone out of her pocket and looked at her profile. 

“Woah! Professor Croix never told us about any of this,” Akko said. 

“Atsuko Kagari, Nickname: “Akko”, second-year at Luna Nova Magical Academy in England, Age: 17, Birthday: June 25th, on the red team at the academy, Ethnicity: Japanese, Rank: 1271 out of 124,563,802 current magic users in the world and has a close relationship with both the blue and green teams at the academy, Soulmate: Not yet publicly disclosed/found, although many suspect who it could be, one of the two witches responsible for shooting down The Noir Missile, very fond of Astronomy and Astrology and learning more about the stars,” Akko read out from her profile. 

“How do they know all this stuff?” Akko asked. 

“I don’t know, but I guess you were right about not being in the top thousand, you’re pretty close though,” Diana said. 

“Well, what does yours say?” Akko asked. 

“Let’s see,” Diana said. 

She took her phone out of her pocket and looked at her profile. 

“Diana Cavendish, heiress to the Cavendish family, second-year at Luna Nova Magical Academy in England, Age: 17, Birthday: April 30th, on the blue team at the academy, Ethnicity: British, Rank: 103 out of 124,563,802 current magic users in the world and has a close relationship with both the red and green teams at the academy, Soulmate: Not yet publicly disclosed/found, although many suspect who it could be, one of the two witches responsible for shooting down The Noir Missile, very fond of Magic Linguistics and learning new languages” Diana read out. 

“You might not be in the top one hundred anymore, but that’s still pretty impressive,” Akko said. 

“What about you Jordan?” Diana asked. 

“Oh, um, let me see,” Jordan said. 

She fished out her phone from her pocket. 

“Jordan Conners, first-year student at Luna Nova Magical Academy in England, Age: 16, Birthday: August 22nd, on the indigo team at the academy, Ethnicity: British, Rank: 23,454 out of 124,563,802 current magic users in the world, Soulmate: Not yet found, very fond of Magical Arts and learning how to paint and draw,” Jordan read out. 

“You’re taking Magical Arts?” Akko asked. 

“Yeah, I am,” Jordan said. 

“So I can assume you know what happened to the previous professor, right?” Diana asked. 

_ “Oh, no, I’m in for it now,”  _ Jordan thought. 

Mr. Clive invaded her thoughts. 

_ “You sure are, just play it cool, no one suspects you, right?”  _ Mr. Clive asked. 

_ “No, you’re right,”  _ Jordan said. 

_ “Okay, then just answer truthfully, leaving out the most important thing of course,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

Mr. Clive left her thoughts just as fast as he appeared and Jordan answered the two of them. 

“All I know is that she was killed, most likely by magic, due to the wand that was next to her body. That’s it,” Jordan said. 

“She asked about Mr. Clive, do you think he has something to do with it?” Akko asked Diana. 

“Not likely, sure he’s strong enough to do something like that, but the wand that was lying next to her body was a wand that’s issued to Luna Nova students,” Diana said. 

“How do you know?” Jordan asked. 

“The wand was taken by Headmistress Holbrooke to be used as evidence, so we know it’s most likely a student who orchestrated this,” Diana said. 

“We don’t know that fully, what if someone took over a student’s body or something?” Akko asked. 

“I guess that’s a possibility, but even so, it was the student who took the shot,” Diana said. 

“So it could literally be any student, that sure narrows it down,” Akko said sarcastically. 

“It could be, but I’m thinking that it’s probably a student who takes Magical Arts, who else would know Professor Wellard enough,” Diana said. 

“But who would hate their professor enough to kill them? As much as I dislike Professor Finnelan, I wouldn’t want to  _ kill  _ her,” Akko said. 

“Well, of course, you’re much too kind for that, this has to be someone with no remorse,” Diana said. 

“That’s obvious, they have to have no remorse to still be freely walking around these halls knowing full well they killed a professor,” Akko said. 

“Um, you still never answered my question about Mr. Clive,” Jordan asked. 

“Well, he’s the CEO of Clive Enterprises, a very powerful wizard, he’s been known to treat his employees with less respect than they deserve, and he has one employee that’s a descendant of The Six Great Houses,” Diana said. 

“Thank you, I’ll take my leave now,” Jordan said and then walked away. 

“We should get going too, it’s getting late,” Diana said. 

“Do you want to spend the night?” Akko asked. 

“In your room?” Diana asked. 

“Sure, why not, it’s not like Lotte and Sucy would care unless we’re doing  _ things _ ,” Akko said. 

“Whatever could you mean by  _ things _ ?” Diana asked in a teasing voice. 

“Stop! You’re going to make me really try something,” Akko said. 

“I wouldn’t be opposed to that, you already drive me crazy as it is,” Diana said. 

“In a good way, I hope,” Akko said. 

Diana didn’t answer but she did wrap her arms around Akko’s waist and brought her body closer to hers. 

“Oh, definitely. I would love it if you made me moan your name in pleasure,” Diana whispered in Akko’s ear. 

That sent a shiver down Akko’s spine and made her cheeks redden. 

“What?” Akko asked. 

“Take me to your room,” Diana whispered. 

Akko happily obliged and took Diana to her room. The other seven didn’t even notice them leave. Akko closed the door, pushed her soulmate against it, and kissed her deeply, with heat and passion, she responded to it and laced her fingers through Akko’s hair. They broke apart and were both breathing heavily. 

“Akko,” Diana breathed. 

“Woah! I did that?” Akko asked, surprised at herself. 

“Are you having second thoughts?” Diana asked. 

“No! I do want you, but I’m not sure I’m ready yet,” Akko said. 

“That’s fine, Akko, I would never pressure you into something you’re not ready for,” Diana said reassuringly, hugging her. 

“Thank you,” Akko said, digging her head into Diana’s shoulder. 

With that, they just went to sleep, wrapped in each other’s arms, for the second day in a row. Lotte and Sucy walked into the room and saw the two of them sleeping together. 

“What’s she doing here?” Sucy asked, pointing at Diana’s sleeping body. 

“She’s not doing anything wrong, just let them sleep,” Lotte said. 

“You’re only saying that because of your soulmate,” Sucy said. 

“What?” Lotte asked. 

“How do you not know? Whatever, you’ll find out soon enough,” Sucy said. 

“Find out about what, Sucy?” Lotte asked. 

“Nothing, let’s just go to bed,” Sucy said. 

Lotte wanted to say something more but refrained and just climbed to the top bunk. Sucy got in her own bed and they both went to sleep. 


	4. What About Jordan?

Jordan couldn’t sleep, she sat up on the top bunk of her bed. Her mind was whirling around with thoughts about Mr. Clive and his plans. 

_“What does Mr. Clive want with the New Nine Witches? He more in part seems keen on the two soulmates in the leaders of the red and blue team though, I wonder if it has something with the strong connection they seem to have. Maybe, I should look up more about Clive Enterprises, yeah, let’s do that,”_ Jordan thought. 

She unplugged her phone from its charger and grabbed it. She went to Google and typed in Clive Enterprises. The first result was their website and she clicked on it. 

_“Clive Enterprises, a family-owned enterprise, currently owned by third-generation Clive, Madison, it was originally founded by his grandfather Justin. The Clive's are a family of powerful magic-users and have ruled the city of London for years in the business industry. They’ve maintained a good relationship with the Chavla’s of the Six Great Houses for a long time and have at least one Chavla working for them,”_ Jordan read in her head. 

Jordan wanted to keep reading, but the man himself invaded her thoughts once again. 

_“Reading about me Jordan? That’s sweet,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“I wanted to learn more about you, but this website didn’t provide me with any really new information, just that your business is family-owned and you basically run London,”_ Jordan said. 

_“Yes, Clive Enterprises is a big business, it’s been around since the 1960s,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“It’s been around quite a while, why didn’t you tell me, this is where you worked in the beginning?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“You figured it out without me telling you, didn’t you?”_ Mr. Clive asked. 

_“Well, yes, but you are so secretive and mysterious, it makes me suspicious,”_ Jordan said. 

_“That’s understandable, you’ll find out soon enough,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“Can I ask you some more questions?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“Go ahead, I have the whole night,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“Okay, let’s see, how did your relationship with the Chavla’s start?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“Well, the previous head of the Chavla family approached my dad about having a working relationship, since they heard we were a very powerful family, they were very intrigued and came to us about testing their sealing magic, you know how powerful we are, right?”_ Mr. Clive asked. 

_“Yes, I know you’re ranked number 8 out of 124,563,802 current magic users in the world, very impressive,”_ Jordan said. 

_“Do you think someone has a chance of stopping me?”_ Mr. Clive asked. 

_“Besides the Six heads and Professor Chariot?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“Well, yeah, those seven are ranked above me,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“I think Diana might have a good chance,”_ Jordan said. 

_“Ms. Cavendish, really? Are you serious? Sure, she’s powerful for only being a second-year in high school, but I don’t think she could even hold a candle to me,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“She has something that you’ll never have though,”_ Jordan asked. 

_“And what is that?”_ Mr. Clive asked. 

_“Friends that’ll defend her to no end, a believing heart, and someone who loves her for her,”_ Jordan said. 

_“Do you think that’s enough?”_ Mr. Clive asked. 

_“I know it is, they’ll find a way to stop you, anyway, next question, how did your family get so powerful?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“If you say so. My family was powerful since the beginning, we were actually supposed to be a part of the Six Great Houses, but the Reinhardts beat us to that position,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“How?”_ Jordan asked. 

“ _They literally beat us to that position, we were weaker back then and the Reinhardts used that against us, so we were just left at the sideline,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“So you fought back and became stronger? Is that how you are in this position now?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“Yes, after that loss, our family vowed to never lose anything again, so we founded Clive Enterprises, and made a powerful empire out of it,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“That’s so pure and yet devious at the same time, your motives allude me, Mr. Clive,”_ Jordan said. 

_“I’m glad they do, I’m deemed The Mysterious Wizard for a reason after all,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“Wow! Okay, with that, I think I must be going to bed now,”_ Jordan said. 

_“Sure, good night, Jordan,” Mr. Clive said._

Mr. Clive left Jordan’s thoughts and she put her head to her pillow and drifted off into a peaceful slumber. 

* * *

“Hey, Akko, wake up, we’re going to be late,” Diana said, poking her cheek. 

“Five more minutes,” Akko said sleepily. 

“That’s a shame, I had this whole surprise planned too,” Diana said. 

Akko immediately perked up at that. 

“What kind of surprise?” Akko asked. 

“You’ll find out after class, now go get ready,” Diana said, pushing Akko into the bathroom. 

Akko cleaned up her face, put on her uniform, and then walked out to see her soulmate looking at her. 

“Ready?” Diana said, extending a hand for Akko to hold. 

“Yep! Let’s go,” Akko said, grabbing the extended hand. 

They walked out of the room and into the hallway. While walking to class they were met by Jordan again. 

“Good morning,” Jordan greeted. 

“Good morning, Jordan, how are you doing?” Akko asked. 

“I’m good, how are you?” Jordan asked. 

“I’m great, I get to spend another day with my beautiful soulmate, what more could I want,” Akko said with a smile. 

“Aww! That’s so cute, I wish I could have a relationship like you two have someday,” Jordan said. 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find someone that makes you as happy as Akko makes me,” Diana said. 

“Definitely, your soulmate is bound to be out there somewhere,” Akko said. 

“Thank you guys,” Jordan said. 

“Well, we should get going, see you later, Jordan,” Akko said. 

“See you,” Jordan said and then walked away. 

They walked the rest of the way to class and sat next to each other. They stole occasional glances at each other during class, but not enough to get the professor’s attention. 

“Who can tell me what constellation this is?” Professor Ursula asked, pointing at one on the board. 

Akko raised her hand. Professor Ursula regarded her. 

“The tiger constellation,” Akko said. 

“Yes, what does it represent?” Professor Ursula asked. 

Diana raised her hand this time. Professor Ursula nodded at her. 

“The west and autumn, it’s one of the four symbols of the Chinese constellations,” Diana said. 

Professor Ursula nodded confirming that she was correct and continued with her lecture. She finished with her lecture and the bell rang. The two of them were leaving together when Professor Ursula called out to them. 

“Hey, Akko, can you stay back, you too, Diana,” Professor Ursula said. 

“Did we do something wrong?” Akko asked. 

“No, nothing of the sort, quite the opposite, I just want to talk to you guys about something,” Professor Ursula said. 

“Okay, what is it?” Akko asked. 

“So, you two know that Croix is my soulmate, right?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“Yeah, I kind of figured, what about her?” Diana asked. 

“Well, I told her about the murder that happened a few days ago and she agreed to investigate it as well,” Professor Ursula said. 

“That’s great, I have one question though, how did Croix program the stuff with our phones?” Akko asked. 

“What do you mean?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“Like our profiles,” Akko said. 

“Huh?” Professor Ursula asked, confused. 

“Yeah, we have profiles, I didn’t understand at first, but I spent some time working with it, it’s really fascinating,” Diana said. 

Professor Ursula took her phone out of her pocket and looked at her profile. 

“Chariot du Nord, Former Stage Name: Shiny Chariot, Preferred Name: Ursula Callistis, Astronomy and Astrology Professor at Luna Nova Magical Academy in England, Birthday: February 20th, Ethnicity: French, Rank: 7 out of 124,563,802 current magic users in the world, Soulmate: Croix Meridies, mentor of Atsuko Kagari at the academy, very fond of continuing her studies of magic and learning new things,” Professor Ursula read. 

“I need to ask Croix about this later,” Professor Ursula said. 

“So you are Rank 7, wow!” Akko exclaimed. 

“Yeah, I’m just below the heads of The Six Great Houses,” Professor Ursula said. 

“Do you know of the person below you?” Diana asked. 

“Mr. Madison Clive, why?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“Well, there was this first-year student, Jordan Conners, that asked us about him yesterday, he might be connected to something,” Diana said. 

“Wait, doesn’t she take Magical Arts?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“Yeah, so, do you think Mr. Clive could have anything to do with Professor Wellard’s death?” Akko asked. 

“Unlikely, the wand next to her body belonged to a student,” Professor Ursula said. 

“That’s what I thought too, but then Akko said that the student could’ve been controlled by someone,” Diana said. 

“That’s possible, but the shot was taken by the student in the end,” Professor Ursula said. 

“That’s exactly what Diana said to me,” Akko said. 

“You should listen to your soulmate, you know, she’s right about almost everything,” Professor Ursula. 

“You still see me like that, Professor? I thought you of all people would see that I make mistakes as well,” Diana said. 

“It’s true, isn’t it? You’ve only ever gotten a few questions wrong on all tests combined,” Professor Ursula said. 

“The life of the top student, I guess, right?” Akko asked her soulmate. 

“That’s the reputation I have to uphold, after all,” Diana replied. 

“You really shouldn’t be responsible for all that,” Akko said. 

“I’m a Cavendish, what else do you expect?” Diana asked. 

“Sometimes I wish you didn’t have that last name, then maybe you could live a normal life,” Akko said. 

“Being normal wouldn’t have gotten me here now would it have? I like to think I’m extranormal,” Diana said. 

“Well, I think you’re gorgeous just the way you are,” Akko said. 

Diana wrapped her arms around Akko’s neck from behind. 

“Don’t you ever change, Akko, you’re perfect,” Diana said. 

“No, _you’re_ the perfect one,” Akko said, looking up at her. 

“This is cute and all, but I think I should let you leave now, I’m sure you have other plans, I only wanted to inform you about Croix, I’ll let you two know about any developments,” Professor Ursula said. 

“Thank you, Professor, we’ll get out of your bright red hair now,” Diana said. 

They left the classroom and Professor Ursula dialed up Croix. She answered on the first ring. 

“Hello, Chariot, is everything going well?” Croix asked. 

“Yeah, everything’s well, how are you doing at the Ministry?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“Still on probation, but they’re letting me work in the new Modern Magic department,” Croix said. 

“So, do I have to them to thank for the new _updates_ to our technology?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“Oh, the profiles? Yeah, that was all them,” Croix replied. 

“Well, now I know my answer to _that_ question. I miss you, Croix,” Professor Ursula admitted. 

“I miss you too, Chariot,” Croix said. 

“Are there any new developments in the case?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“It looks the strike to Professor Wellard’s body was caused by a strong iteration of **Murowa** , stronger than any student could produce on their own, the only student at Luna Nova with that kind of potential is Ms. Cavendish, but even that would be extremely difficult for her,” Croix said. 

_“So the chance of someone being controlled is actually highly possible,”_ Professor Ursula thought. 

“Chariot, are you still there?” Croix asked. 

“Oh, yeah, I was just thinking, what are the chances of a student being controlled?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“That’s actually very plausible, but who would want to do that?” Croix asked. 

“I don’t know,” Professor Ursula said. 

“Well, I need to go, it was nice talking to you Chariot, I’ll call you when I have more information,” Croix said. 

“Bye, Croix,” Professor Ursula said. 

Croix hung up and Professor Ursula started grading papers. 

“Ms. Cavendish, hundred as always,” Professor Ursula said, marking her paper. 

“Ms. Kagari, too, your soulmate must be rubbing off on you,” Professor Ursula said, marking her paper. 

Professor Ursula just kept marking papers and when she finished she went back to her room. 


	5. The Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much fun with this chapter, I hope you like it and please leave a comment telling me how I'm doing, I would really love your feedback.

Diana had led Akko into town, they were standing in front of a movie theater. 

“You wanted to take me to watch a movie?” Akko asked. 

“I wanted to take you out somewhere, it doesn’t have to be a movie, I just want to spend time with you,” Diana confessed. 

Akko blushed at the kind gesture displayed by her soulmate. 

“Aww! Di, you wanted to take me on a date? That was your surprise? I would love to spend time with you,” Akko said, hugging her tight.

Diana blushed at the nickname Akko just gave her and responded to the hug bringing her closer. Akko let go and grabbed her soulmate’s wrist. 

“Let’s go, I want to show you something,” Akko said. 

“What?” Diana asked. 

Akko didn’t respond and instead just took her to the place where she wanted to go. It was a big tree in the middle of the forest with carved hearts with initials and handprints on the sides of each heart. There was a sign in front of the tree that showed the name of it and the names of people who’ve signed it. 

“The Soulmate Tree,” Diana read. 

“Yeah, look, Chariot and Croix also carved their names here,” Akko said, pointing to a heart with their initials and handprints. 

“Yes, I guess they did, do you also want to carve our names into this tree?” Diana asked. 

“Well, yeah, of course, but only if you’re okay with it,” Akko said. 

“I would love to,” Diana said. 

Akko noticed an open spot next to Chariot and Croix’s heart. 

“There,” Akko said, pointing to the open spot. 

They both grabbed their wands out and drew a heart together, Akko drawing the right half and Diana drawing the left half. Diana drew a D.C. and a horizontal line inside the heart and Akko completed it by drawing a vertical line to form a plus sign and signed her initials A.K. next to it. They saw a paint can next to the tree and dipped their palms in it. They smiled at each other and put their palms to the tree together, forming a handprint heart on the carved one. They looked down at the sign and noticed their names being added to it. 

“Wow! That was quick,” Akko said, looking at their names on the sign. 

“So the tree keeps track of the people who have signed it, interesting,” Diana said. 

“Yeah, every country has its own Soulmate Tree, my parents signed their names on the one in Japan, I’ve wanted to do this with you ever since I found the tree for this country,” Akko said. 

“Does that mean my parent’s names are here?” Diana asked. 

“Only if they signed it, not all soulmates do,” Akko said. 

Diana looked at the sign, there were many couples’ names on it, she had to search for a while, but there it was, Bernadette Cavendish + Arthur Reinhardt, plain as day. Akko, on the other hand, was looking at the tree, where she found their heart. 

“That’s it, right?” Akko asked, pointing at a heart with the initials B.C. + A.R. 

Diana looked at where her soulmate was pointing. She started to break down, but this wasn’t out of sadness, it was out of joy, she crouched down and covered her face with her hands, but she seemed to forget that there was still paint on one of them and paint got on her face. 

“Hey! Diana, are you all right?” Akko asked, looking at her in her crouched position. 

She uncovered her face and stood up again. 

“Yeah, I’m just really happy,” Diana said, with tears streaming down her face. 

“Then why are you crying?” Akko said, wiping her tears away with her non-paint covered hand. 

“I don’t know, tears of joy maybe? I have a tough time showing emotion, yet now I’ve cried twice in front of you,” Diana chuckled. 

Akko cupped her hands on her soulmate’s face, adding more paint to the paint that was already on the side of her face and pulled her in for a kiss. She responded and they broke apart a few seconds later. 

“Great, now I have more paint on my face,” Diana smiled. 

“You don’t seem too angry about that,” Akko also smiled. 

“How can I be with you in front of me?” Diana asked. 

“Just how sweet can you be? You were so cold before, have I made you soft?” Akko asked. 

“I can show you just how  _ sweet  _ I can be and no you haven’t made me soft, you just melted my heart,” Diana said. 

“Not icy-cold Cavendish anymore, huh, should I call you cuddly Cavendish instead?” Akko asked playfully. 

Diana blushed at the comment but didn’t answer but instead cupped Akko’s face and kissed her just like she did for her earlier, getting paint on her face, the opposite side of where her own paint was. 

“Payback for earlier,” Diana smiled again. 

“I’m okay with that, especially, if I get to see that smile,” Akko said. 

“I love you, Akko, I love you so much,” Diana confessed. 

“Not as much I love you,” Akko said, hugging her again. 

“Is that so? Prove it,” Diana practically demanded. 

“How?” Akko asked, innocently. 

“Oh, so that’s how you want to play,” Diana said. 

Diana leaned down and kissed Akko’s nape and then trailed up to nibble at her ear. Akko let out a soft moan. She moved back down to kiss her non-paint stained cheek and then her lips again, with more force than before. She practically begged for entrance which Akko happily gave, and they both moaned against each other’s lips. It didn’t last nearly as long as they wanted before they had to break apart to breathe. 

“Um…” Akko trailed off rubbing the back of her neck. 

“Yeah,” Diana said breathlessly. 

She sucked in a breath of fresh air, after all, Akko left her breathless. 

“So, should we go back? Our teammates are going to get worried,” Akko said. 

“Oh, yeah, I guess we should,” Diana said. 

Since magic was no longer restricted, they both rode on Diana’s broom back to Luna Nova, sure Akko was able to fly, but she couldn’t maintain proper flying speed and distance for a long time, and besides Diana liked it when her soulmate hugged her from behind. They got back to Luna Nova and went their separate ways back to their rooms. 

“Hey, Akko, where were you? I was starting to get worried, and is that paint on your face?” Lotte asked. 

“I was with Diana, and yes it’s paint,” Akko answered. 

“How did you get paint on your face?” Lotte asked. 

“We went to The Soulmate Tree,” Akko said. 

“So, you signed your names in The Soulmate Tree?” Lotte asked. 

“Yeah, among other things,” Akko muttered the last part. 

“But that still doesn’t explain how you got paint on your face, it should only be on your hand,” Lotte said. 

“Well, she was with her soulmate, so maybe they...” Sucy trailed off. 

Lotte understood the implication and decided not to pry. 

“Oh... um, just go wash it off then,” Lotte said. 

“I was planning to,” Akko said. 

Akko walked into the bathroom and washed the paint off her face and hand. She changed into her casual clothes and walked back into the bedroom. 

“I wish I could go to The Soulmate Tree with my soulmate one day,” Lotte said. 

“You might get your wish soon, sooner than you think,” Akko said. 

“You think so?” Lotte asked. 

“I  _ know  _ so,” Akko said as she plopped onto her bed. 

They had nothing more to say so they went to bed. Meanwhile, in the blue team’s room, Diana was getting similar treatment. 

“Where were you? Why is paint on your face?” Hannah asked. 

“I went to The Soulmate Tree with Akko,” Diana responded. 

“Really? That must’ve been fun for the two of you,” Barbara said. 

“That explains a lot,” Hannah said. 

“I wish I can go there with my soulmate someday,” Barbara said. 

“Me too,” Hannah said. 

“You’ll both get your chance,” Diana said. 

“Are you sure?” Hannah and Barbara asked in unison.

“I am, now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go wash this paint off,” Diana said. 

Diana went to wash off the paint on her face and hand and came back to see that both Hannah and Barbara already went to sleep. She missed that Akko wasn’t next to her, but she knew she would see her again tomorrow, so she went to bed calm and happy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wish someone could draw fanart or something of this, like them signing The Soulmate Tree together. Also, for my first story, I would really like it if someone could do something like, one of them is kissing the other's cheek and their glowing necklaces extend out and link together to create The Believing Heart card, I think that would be really cool. I'm not forcing anyone to do to this though, only if they feel inclined.


	6. Ms. O'Neill and Her Obliviousness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know Hannah's actual canon birthday, so I just made one up. If anyone knows her actual one, please tell me so I can change it. The start of this story takes place a little after the birthday I made up for her, so they already celebrated it. Anyway, enjoy the chapter, I decided to give you some Hamanda because you guys didn't get it in the first book. I totally feel like I'm leading you on because they still haven't realized they're soulmates, but don't worry, they'll most likely be together by the end of the book.

Amanda knew she liked Hannah, but she couldn’t quite grasp why. Maybe it was the way her cute hazel eyes shone in the sunlight and how her auburn hair seemed to always be silky smooth, or maybe it was the way she took no shits from anyone and even ratted out her teammates when need be. She remembered what Akko said about how she was so whipped for Hannah and didn’t even know what they shared, indeed she noticed how bright her necklace glows when she’s near her, but she never knew why, Why? That was her eternal question, the question she could never fully know the answer to. At first, Amanda didn’t like Hannah at all, she thought she was just another rich stuck-up aristocrat who followed her leader everywhere, but then she learned there was more to her, not to mention, she was really pretty to boot. She knew she liked girls for a long time, but she never felt the way she did about Hannah with anyone else, it felt like Hannah was her soulmate, but that couldn’t be the case, could it? Maybe, that’s what Akko was referring to. She walked into the café and of course, the first person she was greeted by was the auburn-haired beauty. 

“Good morning, Amanda, how are you on this fine day?” Hannah asked with a smile. 

Amanda heard Akko whisper something to her soulmate but she just ignored it. 

“I’m good, how are you?” Amanda asked. 

“Great, come on, sit down,” Hannah said, pulling out a chair next to her for Amanda. 

She sat down next to her and noticed just how bright both of their necklaces were glowing, her’s was the brush and shaft of a Luna Nova broom, all that was needed to match and make a whole was the handle and she could’ve sworn that Hannah’s looked like a handle. 

“Come on! Just get on with it already,” Akko cried out, referring to Amanda and Hannah. 

“Huh?” Amanda asked, confused. 

“This is getting painful,” Akko said. 

“What is?” Hannah asked. 

“Your guy’s obliviousness,” Akko said. 

“What do you mean?” Amanda asked. 

“How can you not see it?” Akko asked. 

“See what?” Hannah asked. 

“Hannah, you’re soulmate is literally in front of you,” Diana said. 

“What?” Hannah and Amanda asked in unison and surprise. 

“We’re not the only soulmates in the room,” Akko said, referring to her and Diana. 

“Well, more so our group, but yes,” Diana agreed. 

“I’m confused,” Amanda said. 

“Me too,” Hannah said. 

“Somehow I feel we’ll solve the murder of Professor Wellard before you two realize what you have,” Akko said. 

“I can’t say I disagree with you,” Diana said. 

Amanda still didn’t understand, she couldn’t, what did Diana mean by saying that Hannah’s soulmate was right in front of her? Was she referring to her? No, that can’t be right. She looked over at Hannah who was looking at her phone. 

“What is this?” Hannah asked, pointing to her profile on her screen. 

“A profile?” Amanda asked. 

“Yeah, we have profiles, what does it say?” Akko asked. 

“Hannah England, second-year at Luna Nova Magical Academy in England, Age: 17, Birthday: September 14th, on the blue team at the academy, Ethnicity: British, Rank: 2175 out of 124,563,807 current magic users in the world, has a close relationship with both the green and red teams at the academy, Soulmate: not yet found, very fond of Magic Design and learning more about magic garments and their designs,” Hannah read. 

“Magic Design, huh? That’s so  _ you _ ,” Amanda said. 

Hannah blushed at the comment, but Amanda didn’t notice it. 

“You think so?” Hannah asked. 

“Definitely, you’ve always told me about how much you love fashion and all that,” Amanda said. 

“You actually listen to all that?” Hannah asked. 

“Yeah, I like listening to your voice, what you’re talking about doesn’t matter,” Amanda said. 

“Really? You like listening to me talk?” Hannah teased. 

“Yeah, I find it really cute,” Amanda admitted with a blush. 

Hannah just smiled, Amanda found  _ that _ even cuter, even though she found everything about Hannah cute, so it wasn’t really a fair judgment. She looked down at her own phone at her profile. 

“So, what does yours say?” Hannah asked. 

“Amanda O’Neill, second-year at Luna Nova Magical Academy, Age: 17, Birthday: March 17th, on the green team at the academy, Ethnicity: American and Irish, Rank: 1986 out of 124,563,807 current magic users in the world, has a close relationship with both the blue and red teams at the academy, Soulmate: not yet found, very fond of Broom Riding and learning new broom skills and dances,” Amanda read. 

“The last time I checked the number of magic users was 124,563,802, so does that mean there are five new magic users added to the system?” Akko asked. 

“Yes, I will admit that was quick for five new magic users to emerge, though. It’s only been a couple of days,” Diana said. 

Akko looked back at her profile, now saying that Diana was confirmed as her soulmate. 

“Look,” Akko said, showing Diana her phone. 

“What?” Diana asked. 

“It shows you as my soulmate now,” Akko said. 

Diana looked at it and indeed it did, where previously her profile said Soulmate: not yet publicly disclosed/found, now said Soulmate: Diana Cavendish. 

“Does that mean mine shows your name now?” Diana asked. 

“Look at it,” Akko said. 

Diana took out her phone and looked at her profile and sure enough, where it previously said, Soulmate: not yet publicly disclosed/found, now said, Soulmate: Atsuko “Akko” Kagari. 

“Is this because we signed The Soulmate Tree?” Diana asked. 

“Probably, that kind of information carries quickly,” Akko said. 

“As happy as being listed as your soulmate makes me, I’m more interested in Hannah and Amanda and Barbara and Lotte finding out  _ they’re _ soulmates,” Diana said. 

“I can’t blame you, I’m kind of wondering what their reactions would be like,” Akko said. 

Diana was about to answer agreeing with her, but her phone rang. 

“Sorry, I should take this,” Diana said. 

“Sure, go ahead,” Akko said. 

She answered and Professor Ursula was on the other side. 

“Professor?” Diana asked. 

“Yes, Diana, are you with the red and green teams by any chance?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“I am, are there new developments in the case?” Diana asked. 

“Yes, there are, I want the nine of you to come to my classroom,” Professor Ursula said. 

“We’ll be right there,” Diana said. 

Professor Ursula hung up and Diana put her phone back in her pocket. 

“Who was it?” Akko asked. 

“Professor Ursula, she wants us to meet her in her classroom,” Diana said. 

“For what?” Akko asked. 

“Professor Wellard’s case,” Diana said. 

“Okay, let’s go,” Akko said, getting up. 

“Where are you two going?” Amanda asked. 

“Professor Ursula’s classroom,” Akko said. 

“Is it about Professor Wellard?” Amanda asked. 

“Yeah,” Akko said. 

“What happened to her?” Sucy asked. 

“Oh, yeah, we forgot to tell you, she got killed,” Akko said. 

“She was really nice, who would do something like that?” Sucy asked. 

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Akko said. 

“Well, we’re coming with you,” Amanda said. 

“Professor Ursula did say for all nine of us to come,” Diana said. 

They all got up from their seats and walked over to the classroom. 

“Oh, good, you’re all here,” Professor Ursula said. 

“So what is it that you wanted to tell us?” Akko asked. 

“Croix told me the magic that killed Professor Wellard was a strong iteration of  **Murowa** , stronger than any student can produce on their own,” Professor Ursula said. 

“So my theory could be right,” Akko said. 

“It very much could be, do you know of any people who hated Professor Wellard?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“Not that I’m aware of, everybody loved her, maybe we can ask Jordan, she takes that class,” Diana said. 

“Yes, that should be good, Croix also said that the only student at Luna Nova with the potential to make something that strong is you, Diana, but she also said that would be extremely difficult for you,” Professor Ursula said. 

“Yes, my magic may be strong, but I could never kill someone with only one hit of  **Murowa** , and I would never want to do that in the first place, violence goes against everything my family stands for,” Diana said. 

“So the person that did this has to be ranked in the top hundred or higher,” Akko said. 

“What makes you think that?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“Well, Diana is ranked one-hundred and three and if my theory is correct and the student was being controlled, it would only make sense if the magic-user is stronger than her, right?” Akko asked. 

“Yes, that does make a lot of sense,” Professor Ursula said. 

“But the problem is we don’t know many of the top hundred magic users, we only know for sure the top ten, although many descendants of The Six Great Houses make the top hundred so maybe someone connected to the houses is involved,” Diana said. 

“Who are the top ten?” Akko asked. 

“Only two of them aren’t part of The Six Great Houses, with Professor Ursula here ranked at number seven and Mr. Madison Clive of Clive Enterprises at eight. First is Fei Wong Reed, followed by Rakstha Chavla, Sophia Pavlova, Amelia Lefevre, my aunt Daryl Cavendish, then my grandfather Ulfric Reinhardt. Nine is Rathika Chavla and ten is Egor Pavlova,” Diana said. 

“Professor Ursula is seventh? Cool,” Amanda commented. 

“Well, she is Chariot,” Akko said. 

“Yes, I am, but I’m still only a professor,” Professor Ursula said. 

“That doesn’t make you any less powerful, maybe  _ you  _ killed her,” Akko accused. 

“What? Akko, that doesn’t make any sense, if Professor Ursula killed her, do you think she would be helping us?” Diana asked. 

“Plus, do you think I would kill a co-worker and still be teaching here?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“Yeah, I’m sorry, Professor, I should’ve never said that you were responsible for Professor Wellard’s murder, I’m just picking at straws,” Akko said. 

“It’s okay, Akko, we’re all just trying to figure out what happened,” Professor Ursula said. 

“So we know a strong attack spell killed her, that much is obvious and that the killer was most likely a student that could’ve been controlled by a more powerful magic user than the student herself, and that the only student with the potential of stopping them is Cavendish, that’s just great,” Amanda said, exasperated. 

“That’s definitely frustrating, but not nearly as much as your obliviousness,” Akko muttered. 

Diana heard her and chuckled softly. Amanda heard her. 

“What are you laughing about?” Amanda asked. 

“It’s nothing,” Diana said, back to her neutral expression. 

“Well, okay, do we know anything else?” Amanda asked. 

“I’m afraid not, but I will be sure to get back to you when I have more information,” Professor Ursula said. 

“Then I guess we’ll be going now,” Amanda said. 

“See you later,” Professor Ursula said. 

The nine of them left the classroom and went to their respective rooms for the night. 


	7. His Underground Lair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a chapter entirely in Mr. Clive's perspective, this won't happen again until chapter sixteen. This is mainly to build the antagonist's view.

It was after work for Madison Clive and his employees have already left, save for his favorite one, Rathika Chavla, who knew of the Clive secret lair underneath the building, she was the only employee who knew. Well, all the Chavla’s who have ever worked with the Clive’s have seen it, but they’re the only ones. Madison walked into the lair followed closely by Rathika, they were both introduced by a big chamber in the middle of the room and a cluttered work desk with papers and potions and many a different wand. He walked over to the desk, grabbed a wand, and turned on the light to his lair, it was a dim light, but that’s all he really needed. 

“So how are we going to do this?” Rathika asked. 

“Simple, cast the spell for me to see and I will copy it,” Mr. Clive said. 

Rathika did just that, there was a rat crawling around the lair and she cast a spell which created a strong seal around it. Mr. Clive repeated it and the seal became even stronger, the rat was basically incapacitated, it couldn’t move at all. 

“As powerful as ever, Mr. Clive,” Rathika said. 

“Yes, you never disappoint, Rathika,” Mr. Clive said. 

“So, did you finally take care of that pesky soulmate of yours?” Rathika asked. 

Rathika knew that Professor Wellard was Madison’s soulmate. She knew how much it got to him when she rejected him and broke their soulmate connection altogether, he still felt that pull and tug of her, but now, that was no longer an issue. 

“Yes, I did, she is no longer a problem, but the body I did it through might become one,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Who did you take over?” Rathika asked. 

“Just her favorite student, Jordan Conners,” Mr. Clive said. 

“That must’ve hurt her real good, what about The New Nine Witches? Have they caught on?” Rathika asked. 

“No, not yet, but a certain Ms. Kagari seems to think that a student was being controlled,” Mr. Clive said. 

“She’s smarter than she leads on,” Rathika said. 

“That’s for sure,” Mr. Clive agreed. 

“How are you planning on dealing with them if they do find out?” Rathika asked. 

“That’s for future me to deal with,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Okay, I’ll leave you now,” Rathika said. 

She left the lair and left Mr. Clive at his desk. He banged his fists against the desk. 

“This is all wrong! I killed my soulmate, but somehow it felt so right, to see that horrified look on her face, to shoot  **Murowa** . I really am a terrible person, but that doesn’t matter, all that matters is keeping it hidden,” Mr. Clive said. 

He sat down on his chair at the desk and started writing on his papers, he tested his potions and wrote down their effects, he used each of his wands and tested their strength. He walked over to the chamber and looked at the tubes and smoke inside, it was almost ready for its next victim, which in Mr. Clive’s eyes would most definitely be Jordan Conners, then The New Nine Witches would come to save her, then he would trap them as well. It was a masterful plan in his eyes, well except for the anomalies that were Atsuko Kagari and Diana Cavendish. Those two were the ones that Mr. Clive was the most worried about, especially because of their strong connection and how they seem to make each other more powerful even just when standing next to each other. Others didn’t see it, but Mr. Clive did, he saw just how powerful they made each other. Diana might not even make the top hundred, but with her soulmate working with her, she could contend with the likes of the top ten, maybe even be powerful enough to bring down Mr. Clive himself. It was an understatement to say that he wasn’t the least bit scared because he was, he was scared of what the two of them will do to him if they found out, he was scared how they seemed to command a room without even being in it, he was scared of the sheer raw magic power that seemed to emanate off of them, he was scared that a second-year in high school seemed to have more power than him and it was someone who hails from the family that beat the Clive’s no less, but more so he was jealous, he was jealous of the fact they had that kind of connection, he was jealous that his soulmate didn’t love him the way those two love each other, he hated that he could never have that, but he would never tell people that, they would all think he was soft and not a good businessman because the first rule of the business world is ‘be ruthless’, he had to have confidence, authority, a commanding presence, he couldn’t let them see that something like love got to him. He went back to his seat and kept working with his magic until eventually he got tired and had to return home, but before doing so, of course, he just couldn’t resist, playing with his little pawn. 

_ “Hello, Jordan, are you in your dorm?”  _ Mr. Clive asked. 

_ “Yes, I do happen to be in my dorm, so you caught me at a good time, Mr. Clive,”  _ Jordan said. 

_ “Great, I want you to come to see my work, not now, but maybe in a few months,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “A chance to finally see the man who keeps invading my thoughts in person? I would kill for that chance,”  _ Jordan said. 

_ “You already did, Jordan. Just remember the date January 26th, meet me in front of Clive Enterprises at 15:30 on that date,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Okay, today’s September 26th, so four months from now, see you then,”  _ Jordan said. 

_ “I’ll be looking forward to seeing the one who killed Professor Wellard for me,”  _ Mr. Clive. 

_ “What did she even do to you?”  _ Jordan asked. 

_ “In short, she broke my heart,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “You have a heart?”  _ Jordan asked, shocked. 

_ “Surprisingly, I’m not as heartless as I seem,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “This is certainly news to me,”  _ Jordan said. 

_ “Well, just remember the date, I must be going,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Bye, Mr. Clive,”  _ Jordan said. 

Mr. Clive left her thoughts and went back home. He walked into his penthouse, it was clean and clearly looked like it belonged to someone rich, with an L-shaped couch, flatscreen t.v, and fancy kitchen appliances, but what really made it was his king-sized bed, which looked like it was fit for a real king. Mr. Clive kicked off his shoes and didn’t even bother changing before he got into his bed, he was far too tired, and just as his head hit the pillow he was out cold. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this probably doesn't need to be said, but please don't plagiarize other people's works. If you use characters from other fanworks in your own please make sure you credit the work they come from. You can use my characters, aka, the Clive family, the Wellard family, and the indigo team if you want, but please credit that they come from my work. Like how I stated that The Six Great Houses come from The Mending Hearts Series. Just thought I'd say that.


	8. Cavendish is Being Controlled?!

Diana was studying in her dorm when she felt this sudden urge to see her soulmate. She wanted her, it was like desire clouded her mind, all that she could think about was her. She didn’t even think when she walked out of her room and knocked on the red team’s door. Akko answered it. 

“Diana?” Akko asked. 

Diana didn’t answer but just grabbed her waist and brought her in for a kiss. Akko responded but she broke it a few seconds later. 

“Well, nice to see you too,” Akko smiled. 

She looked into Diana’s eyes and they were glazed over. 

“Are you okay?” Akko asked. 

Diana didn’t answer, she just grabbed Akko’s wrist and took her outside into the courtyard. 

“Why did you take me out here?” Akko asked. 

She was just caught by another kiss, Akko had no idea what was going on with her soulmate but she knew it was wrong. Akko tried to fight her but she was just too strong, she grabbed her shoulders and pushed her down into the grass, so now she was hovering on top of her. 

“Why are you doing this? This is so unlike you,” Akko said. 

She was just cut off by another kiss, her lips then traveled down to her neck, Akko subconsciously let out a moan, as much as it felt good, this was wrong. Diana slid her fingers down Akko’s body and reached under her shirt, tracing her abs. Akko couldn’t deny how good this felt, but when she looked into Diana’s glazed eyes again, she knew that she wasn’t herself, it was like she was being controlled by something and not just desire or lust, sure those were a part of it but this was more than that, it was like someone was making her do this involuntarily, and that made Akko feel worse. 

“Hey! Diana, snap out of it!” Akko cried out. 

But nothing happened, it was like Diana couldn’t hear her at all, she moved her hands lower, reaching the waistband of Akko’s shorts. This was when Akko finally couldn’t take it anymore. She pushed Diana off of her with all the force she could muster and stood up and shook the dirt off herself. She started shaking her soulmate in hopes of breaking the trance she was in, luckily, it worked and her eyes went back to normal. Akko was so relieved that she got her soulmate back and hugged her tightly. Diana looked at her confused. 

“Huh? Akko, why are we in the courtyard?” Diana asked. 

“You were caught in some sort of trance and brought me out here,” Akko replied. 

“I did? The last thing I remember was studying at my desk in my dorm, what happened?” Diana asked. 

“You came and knocked on my door, I answered it and you kissed me out of nowhere, I tried talking to you but you didn’t answer me and took me out here, where you pushed me into the grass and kissed me again, then you kissed my neck and your hands traveled over my body, they reached my waistband before I finally was able to push you off me,” Akko recalled. 

“I’m so sorry, I never meant to hurt you, I don’t know what came over me,” Diana said dejectedly.

“It’s okay, I know,” Akko said, bringing her closer and running her hands up and down her back. 

“I hope you can forgive me,” Diana said, burying her head in the crook of Akko’s neck. 

“What’s there to forgive? It’s like you were being controlled, you clearly weren’t yourself,” Akko said. 

“Huh? What do you mean controlled?” Diana asked. 

“Your eyes were glazed over and you were acting really strange, not answering me at all, I’m not sure if it was like lust or desire or something, but you weren't acting like yourself in the least, I thought I lost you,” Akko said, starting to cry.

“Oh, Akko, you could never lose me, you know that,” Diana said, comforting her. 

“I know, it’s just I was really worried, you wouldn’t talk to me at all, it was like you had lost your self-control,” Akko said. 

“I mean, you always make me lose control, but that’s beside the point, what kind of sick joke was this that someone decided was fun to play on me?” Diana asked, frustrated. 

“I don’t know, maybe someone wanted to test us or something,” Akko said. 

“Why? What would they want to test?” Diana asked. 

“Maybe someone who knew we were soulmates wanted to test how strong our connection really was,” Akko suggested. 

“That’s possible, we really should be going back to our rooms now, though,” Diana said. 

“Yeah, let’s go,” Akko said. 

So they went back to their rooms. 

* * *

“Damn it!” Mr. Clive yelled out as he watched the two of them leave through his crystal ball. 

He was in his lair working on a new project. Rathika was also there with him. 

“They have a way more powerful connection than I first thought, all it took was Ms. Kagari shaking Ms. Cavendish to wake her from her trance of desire, fascinating,” Rathika chimed. 

“Very, so I did have the right idea,” Mr. Clive said. 

“What do you mean, sir?” Rathika asked. 

“Nothing to concern yourself with, Rathika, you may leave now,” Mr. Clive said. 

Rathika took her leave and Mr. Clive went back to work. 

“They just might be powerful enough. The Soulmate Connection Desire Spell proved that to me, I cast it on Ms. Cavendish when she was in an unsuspecting position and I did right in this room, they might be powerful together but by themselves, they’re no match,” Mr. Clive laughed evilly. 

He wrote down his observations and reminded himself to keep the two of them separated once he caught them, it would be game over for him if they were able to cast spells together. Mr. Clive shuddered at the thought. He finished his writings and went back up to his office, it was his break and it had just finished, so he sat at his desk in his office and opened his computer and typed away, he had called Rathika a few times to get him tea and a snack, but nothing else, he was too focused on his work to worry about his magic for now. Mr. Clive often tended to throw himself into his work when he was frustrated, so he worked the whole day away. He even stayed after his employees had left, including Rathika. He decided it was time to finally go back home, he had a long day and wanted to eat a real meal, so he went home, cooked himself a nice pot of chicken curry and rice and ate it while watching cringe reality shows on T.V, it was his guilty pleasure. He finished his meal, washed his dishes, changed into more casual clothes, and sat on his bed reading a business magazine before ultimately deciding it was time to go to sleep. He closed his magazine, set it on the nightstand by his bed, and used his wand to turn off the light. He put his head to his fluffy pillow, curled up in his expensive linen sheets, and went to sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone would like to become my beta reader and/or proofreader, please comment or email me at jmbhakta1@gmail.com


	9. The Nightfall Fanatics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barbara and Lotte finally realize they had something else in common

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notice that I bumped the rating down to teen. I thought I was going to write smut but I never ended up doing so and if Our Ideal Place is rated teen, this story is definitely not as mature as other stories.

Barbara knew she liked Lotte, ever since they both found out they liked Nightfall at Andrew’s party last year. She noticed how bright her necklace glowed when she was near her and she did say it was half of a volume of Nightfall, but which one? Barbara’s was volume 145, in fact, it was one of her favorite volumes, she loved how Edgar and Arthur got closer to each other by both having to receive something for Belle and they had to work together because there was only one of that specific item. She had to admit that she was at least a little bit jealous of Diana and Akko, they were so cute together. Somehow, the one that didn’t believe in soulmates at first found hers before Barbara did, that’s what really got to her. She heard what Akko said to Lotte about her being enamored with Barbara, so maybe she did have a chance, she was going to see her in the café. 

_ “Okay, I’m going to ask Lotte which volume her necklace is, if it’s the same volume then jackpot, if not, it’s fine,”  _ Barbara thought. 

She left her room and walked into the café, the first person to greet her was the timid ginger with big round glasses and freckles, which to Barbara made her look just the more beautiful. 

“Good morning, Barbara,” Lotte greeted. 

“Good morning, Lotte, how are you today?” Barbara asked. 

“I’m good, how are you?” Lotte asked. 

“I’m great, I have a question, I know that your necklace is half of a volume of Nightfall, but which one?” Barbara asked. 

Lotte looked down at her brightly glowing necklace and then back up at Barbara. 

_ “It’s the same necklace,”  _ Barbara thought. 

“Volume 145,” Lotte said. 

_ “Yes! Yes! Yes! This is exactly what I wanted,”  _ Barbara thought. 

“Link your necklace with mine,” Barbara said. 

“Huh?” Lotte asked, confused. 

“Link your necklace with mine,” Barbara repeated. 

“You think we’re soulmates?” Lotte asked. 

“I  _ know  _ we are,” Barbara said. 

Barbara walked closer to Lotte and linked their necklaces, forming volume 145 of Nightfall. It created a flash, not as big as Diana and Akko’s, but still pretty big. 

“Wow! My soulmate was right in front of me this whole time and I didn’t even know it,” Lotte said. 

Barbara nodded her head in agreement and then leaned in and kissed Lotte, she responded, it was like that’s what they both wanted for a long time. Barbara backed away and went to sit down. 

“Woo! Finally!” Akko cheered. 

“Now I have one less teammate to worry about,” Diana said. 

“Now I’m the only one left without a soulmate,” Hannah said. 

Akko and Diana chuckled at how ironic that statement sounded. 

“Why are you laughing?” Hannah asked. 

They both stopped laughing. 

“It’s just so ironic,” Diana said. 

“You have still not got it have you?” Akko asked. 

“What?” Hannah asked. 

“Whatever, I don’t think you’re ever going to get it at this point,” Akko said. 

“How can you be  _ this  _ oblivious?” Diana asked. 

“Oblivious about what?” Hannah asked. 

“Your soulmate, obviously,” Diana said. 

“Like you know who it is,” Hannah shot back. 

“Oh, we’re pretty sure we do,” Akko muttered. 

“I think I have a pretty good idea,” Diana said. 

“Who then?” Hannah asked. 

“You have to figure that out on your own,” Diana said. 

“Gosh, you’re no help,” Hannah said. 

“How are we supposed to if you can’t see what’s right in front of you?” Akko asked. 

“That is a fair point,” Diana agreed. 

“What are you seeing that I’m not?” Hannah asked. 

“Who knows?” Akko shrugged. 

The new soulmates were gushing over the volume of Nightfall their necklaces formed, saying it was their favorite one. It was a cute moment, Barbara thought it was cute anyway, well she thought everything about her soulmate was cute. Hannah looked over at them and forced a smile, she felt left out knowing that now she was the only one on her team that hasn’t found their soulmate yet. She wondered how her leader knew, is her soulmate really right in front of her? She looked over at Amanda who gave her a smile and looked down at her necklace which looked like the brush and shaft of a Luna Nova broom, which seemed to be a perfect fit for Hannah’s necklace which was shaped like a broom handle. They were both glowing really bright, but why? She had no clue why both of their necklaces were glowing as bright as they were. 

_ “I don’t get it, what do they mean?”  _ Hannah thought. 

“Are you good? You’ve been staring at me for a while now,” Amanda blushed. 

Hannah snapped out of it. 

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Hannah said, nervously fidgeting with the chain of her necklace. 

“You look nervous, are you sure you’re okay?” Amanda asked worriedly. 

_ “She’s worried about me, Aww! That’s sweet,”  _ Hannah thought. 

“Yeah, I assure you I’m fine,” Hannah said reassuringly. 

“Good to know,” Amanda said. 

“How are you?” Hannah asked. 

“I’m great, I get to see the pretty girl in front of me every day, what more could I want,” Amanda said. 

“Have you looked in the mirror? You’re the pretty one,” Hannah said. 

“Nah, you’re far more beautiful than I am,” Amanda said. 

“If you say so,” Hannah said. 

“Oh, don’t sell yourself short, you are,” Amanda said. 

“Thank you,” Hannah said. 

“You’re welcome,” Amanda said. 

They all got up and went to their respective dorms. 

“Why did Diana drag you out of the room yesterday?” Lotte asked. 

“I don’t know, it was like she was being controlled by an outside presence or something,” Akko replied. 

“That’s weird, must’ve been something really powerful if it got to the almighty Cavendish,” Sucy commented. 

“Maybe it’s the same person who was behind Professor Wellard’s killing,” Akko said. 

“That could be the case, but it’s more likely that she drank or ate something bad,” Lotte said. 

“She’d know if that were the case, she’s careful about things like that,” Akko said. 

“Maybe someone snuck something in when she wasn’t looking,” Sucy said. 

“I guess, but with all that’s happened I think we should leave that up for tomorrow,” Akko said, plopping down on her bed. 

“I agree,” Lotte yawned. 

Sucy didn’t say anything, she was already asleep, so the other two followed suit and also went to bed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I really do mean that. I just lost someone really close to me and it's been really tough. To see people enjoy what I write makes me happy, seeing all the hits, kudos, and nice comments on my works really keep me going, especially during this harrowing time, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'm currently working on chapter 20, I should be finished with the second book in the next couple of weeks or so, it should be finished uploading here sometime in September. This is going to be a six-book series, so watch out.


	10. Yes...I Can Hear You

_ “Ms. Kagari,”  _ someone called to her in a low voice. 

_ “Ms. Kagari,”  _ the voice called again. 

Akko sat up in bed startled by the voice calling her name. 

“Huh? Who is it?” Akko asked aloud to no one in particular. 

Lotte and Sucy didn’t hear her so they just kept sleeping. 

_ “Hello, this is Madison Clive, you’ve heard of me, right?”  _ Mr. Clive asked through her thoughts. 

_ “Why you, get out of my head,”  _ Akko said to him and scratched her head. 

_ “Oh, sorry, no can do at the moment,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Then what do you want Mr. Clive? How are you even doing this?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “I’m powerful, but you already knew that,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “You interrupted my beauty sleep, I was having a really good dream, before you rudely woke me,”  _ Akko said angrily. 

_ “About your soulmate, perhaps?”  _ Mr. Clive asked. 

Akko felt her cheeks redden recalling the dream. 

_ “T-That’s none of your business,”  _ Akko stuttered. 

_ “You two really do have a strong connection,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “What do you mean?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “You can hear me, right?”  _ Mr. Clive asked. 

_ “Yes, loud and clear in my head,”  _ Akko said. 

_ “Then let me tell you a story,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “What kind of story?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “Just listen. Once upon a time, there was a boy named Madison who wanted nothing more than to find his soulmate and carry on his family name along with them. One day, he was walking in the forest when he laid his eyes on The Soulmate Tree, where he caught the names of two people he hated more than anyone else, Bernadette Cavendish and Arthur Reinhardt, he hated that those two united the families in a way no one else did, especially because the Reinhardt’s beat his family to a position in The Six Great Houses. He met his soulmate who rejected him, his heart grew cold and filled with hatred of the connection that specific soulmates have, especially Bernadette and Arthur’s. He vowed to never let anyone win against him again and took over his family business and grew it to become one of the most powerful companies in the country,”  _ Mr. Clive told. 

_ “You got rejected by your soulmate? That’s so sad,”  _ Akko said. 

_ “I learned to get over it, it no longer phases me,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “You were supposed to be part of The Six Great Houses?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “Yes, I was,”  _ Mr. Clive responded simply. 

_ “Why did you tell me all this?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “Thought you would like to know more about the infamous wizard Madison Clive,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Why did you hate my soulmate’s parents?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “The love and connection they shared is what got to me, knowing that I’ll never have something like that,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “That’s so disheartening, Mr. Clive, I’m sorry,”  _ Akko apologized. 

_ “No need to apologize, I’ve already dealt with it,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

_ “What do you mean by that?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “I have already said too much, I’ll let you go back to bed now,”  _ Mr. Clive said. 

Akko was about to say something more, but Mr. Clive already left her thoughts, so she went back to sleep hoping she could resume the pleasant dream she was having, but it just wouldn’t come, so she slept through a dreamless night. 

* * *

Akko was sitting in the café thinking about what Mr. Clive said to her the night before. She paid no attention to the conversation happening around her, it was like white noise to her. 

“Hey! Akko! Are you alright?” Diana asked. 

Akko thought she heard her soulmate say something but didn’t pay any mind to it, she was more worried about what happened last night. 

“Akko! Can you hear me?” Diana tried again. 

Akko clearly heard her this time and got conked out with her thoughts. She turned to look at her. 

“Yeah, I can hear you,” Akko said. 

“Then what did I say?” Diana asked. 

Akko flushed with embarrassment, realizing that she heard nothing of what her soulmate was saying. 

“I guess I’ve got my answer,” Diana said, looking at her soulmate’s embarrassment. 

“Well, it’s just Mr. Clive invaded my thoughts last night,” Akko said, scratching the back of her neck. 

“What? How?” Diana asked doubtfully. 

“I don’t know, but that clearly sounded like you’re doubting that it even happened,” Akko said, crossing her arms. 

“No, I believe you, don’t get me wrong, I just find it really bizarre that Madison Clive would invade your thoughts or even has the power to do that, sure, he’s definitely capable of such but that’s some powerful magic he must have if he invaded your thoughts all the way from London to the remote place of Luna Nova,” Diana rambled. 

“He told me that he hated the connection between your parents,” Akko said. 

This struck a nerve. 

“He said what? Oh, if I ever see him he’s certainly getting a piece of my mind,” Diana said angrily, clenching her hands into fists. 

“Babe, just calm down, it’s okay, take a few deep breaths,” Akko instructed. 

Diana did as she was told and took a few deep breaths, relaxed, and unclenched her fists. 

“What else did he say?” Diana asked. 

“He said he was rejected by his soulmate and that’s why he hated your parents, also because the Reinhardts beat his family to a position in The Six Great Houses,” Akko said. 

“I didn’t know that, given, I really don’t know much about my dad’s side, but still, that’s news to me. He was also rejected by his soulmate? No wonder why he acts so cold towards others,” Diana said. 

“He  _ did _ say that his heart grew cold because of that rejection, he also said he hates the connection that specific soulmates have, I’m not sure what that means,” Akko said. 

“Wait, let me try something,” Diana said. 

“What?” Akko asked. 

Diana didn’t say anything but she seemed to tune a connection. 

_ “This, can you hear what I’m thinking?”  _ Diana said.

Akko heard it in her head, but how? 

_ “Yes, I can, for some reason,”  _ Akko said. 

_ “It’s a perk of having a strong connection with your soulmate, only certain couples can do it, the only other way this is possible is if someone invades your thoughts, like Mr. Clive did,”  _ Diana said. 

_ “Really? Cool!”  _ Akko exclaimed. 

_ “Yes, very, my parents told me they were able to do this, so I wanted to try it,”  _ Diana said. 

_ “So we can communicate through thoughts?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “Yes we can, it can be useful if we’re stuck in a tough situation,”  _ Diana said. 

_ “Like if we get separated?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “That’s definitely an appropriate time for it,”  _ Diana said. 

_ “How does this work?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “Anytime you want it to, just attune your mind to mine,”  _ Diana said. 

_ “Okay, can we go back to talking like normal now?”  _ Akko asked. 

Diana broke the connection so now they weren’t hearing each other's thoughts anymore. 

“Well, that was certainly an experience,” Akko said. 

“At least now we know in case we need it,” Diana said. 

“Maybe in the rare chance that Mr. Clive comes and captures us or something,” Akko said. 

“You come up with some of the craziest ideas sometimes, but yeah,” Diana said. 

“Should we go?” Akko asked. 

“Where?” Diana asked. 

“You can come to my room if you want,” Akko said. 

“Are you sure?” Diana asked. 

“Yeah, Lotte said she’s going to Barbara’s and I’m sure you don’t want to walk in on that and Sucy is taking an extra class with Professor Lukić, she won’t be back until late,” Akko said. 

“What are you insinuating?” Diana asked. 

Akko got up and walked closer to her. 

“You know exactly what I mean,” Akko whispered in her ear. 

“Then take me,” Diana whispered back. 

So she did. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment. I've had a really tough time lately, especially with my grandma's passing and the whole situation going on right now. I would really love your guy's support. Let it be known, I'll never force you guys to do anything if you're uncomfortable, I would just really like to see some uplifting comments to keep my spirits up. I'm almost finished with this book, I have like two chapters left and then I'll be starting on the third book. Thank you for reading, your guy's continued support of this series during this uncertain time has really kept me going, so thanks. Special thanks to KingRichRock for being with this series since the beginning.


	11. Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be a smut chapter but I'm a coward and couldn't bring myself to do it, plus, I just didn't think it would've fit with the flow of the story. Maybe you guys will get one in the fifth book, which is my college AU, but for now, here's my best attempt at heavily implying something.

Akko’s eyes fluttered open due to the sunlight peeking through the window. She looked over at the gorgeous blonde sleeping peacefully next to her and felt her cheeks redden as they were both still naked. She started to get up but felt a hand grab her wrist. 

“Where are you going?” Diana asked sleepily. 

“We have to get ready,” Akko said. 

Diana rubbed her eyes and sat up, more aware this time. 

“Oh, right,” Diana said, blushing, looking down at herself. 

Their clothes were sprawled over the floor. Somehow, neither Lotte nor Sucy came back to the room last night. Akko assumed Lotte stayed in the blue team’s room for the night and Sucy just stayed in the potions room. Akko picked her uniform off the ground and hung it up and grabbed a new one from her drawer. She walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, she let the warm water run over her, she washed herself, put her uniform on, and walked back out. Her soulmate was now wearing her own uniform and walked into the bathroom after her. She came back after washing her face and fixing her hair. 

“How do you always manage to look so effortlessly beautiful?” Akko asked. 

“I could ask you the same thing,” Diana said. 

“Well, last night was um…” Akko trailed off, blushing, rubbing her arm. 

“Fun,” Diana finished, looking down, also blushing. 

“Yeah,” Akko simply agreed.

“Well, then, let’s go,” Diana said. 

They left the room and went to the café, where they were greeted by their friends. 

“Hello,” Amanda said. 

“Hey,” Akko waved, sitting down. 

“What happened last night? Did you two finally, you know, it’s like you’re glowing,” Amanda commented looking at the two of them. 

“I-I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” Akko stuttered, looking down at her lap, blushing profusely.

She looked back up at her soulmate who was covering her face in embarrassment. 

“So you did,” Amanda smirked. 

“Yeah,” Akko said meekly. 

Amanda lifted Akko up and squeezed her in a tight hug. 

“Amanda,” Akko said, patting her back, trying to get free. 

“Oh, right,” Amanda said, putting her back on the ground, letting go. 

“So, have you realized it yet?” Akko asked. 

“Realized what?” Amanda asked. 

“Who knows at this point?” Akko shrugged. 

Amanda didn’t say anything else as she was caught up in a conversation with Hannah. 

“You see what I mean,” Akko said to her soulmate. 

“I know exactly what you mean,” Diana said. 

Barbara and Lotte were talking very animatedly about Nightfall with each other, it looked like they were having a good time together. 

“They look nice together,” Akko said. 

“Yes, very much so,” Diana said. 

“I’m glad. My life is so much better for having you in it,” Akko said with a huge smile, looking at Diana. 

“I don’t recall you feeling like that in the beginning, you seemed like you wanted nothing to do with me,” Diana said. 

“Well, that was because I never thought to learn more about you, I really didn’t know anything about who you are until I went to your estate. Now that I think about it, I actually don’t know the more simple things about you,” Akko said. 

“Like what?” Diana asked. 

“Things like your favorite color, food, season, holiday, what you like to do in your free time, you know, the little things,” Akko said. 

“Blue, of course. This may be surprising to you but I really like apple tarts, my favorite season is autumn, I like seeing the leaves change colors and feeling the cool breeze. I haven’t really celebrated holidays, but I remember the last Christmas I spent with my parents, they gave me that teddy bear you saw at my estate, so I guess that’s my favorite holiday. In my free time, I like to read cheesy romance novels, usually under a tree in the courtyard and I like to play my instrument,” Diana said. 

“Really? Apple tarts and cheesy romance novels? You really are a big softie,” Akko laughed. 

“Yeah, I guess,” Diana gave a soft smile. 

“What instrument do you play?” Akko asked. 

“Mainly the guitar, but sometimes I play the flute and saxophone,” Diana said. 

“I’ve never seen them, do you hide them?” Akko asked. 

“Yeah, I don’t tend to show them publicly, it’s kind of frowned upon, ‘if you want to play music, use your wand’, ‘you shouldn’t have real instruments here’ is what they all say. The only others who know are my teammates,” Diana said. 

“That’s so sad, I would love to see you play the guitar,” Akko said. 

“Maybe I can show you sometime. Anyway, what about you? I want to know more about you too, you know,” Diana said, nudging Akko’s arm. 

“My favorite color is actually purple, but I do like red as well. I’m a really big foodie, so I can’t pick just one, but my Okkasan makes a really good hot pot. My favorite season is also autumn, for surprisingly, the exact same reasons as you. My favorite holiday is hands down Christmas, I love all the lights and colors, the presents are cool too, but more so I just like spending the time with my friends and family. In my free time, I like playing board and card games, particularly my Chariot cards and I like stargazing. Sometimes, I would sneak out after curfew to see the bright moon and stars, please don’t tell,” Akko said. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone, but you really aren’t supposed to be out after curfew,” Diana said. 

“Yeah, I know, but it’s just something about them, I find it alluring,” Akko said, looking up at the ceiling. 

“I get it, the stars are so vast and we really don’t know much about them, it’s certainly, what’s the word you used? Alluring? Yes, that’s a way to put it,” Diana said. 

“That’s why my favorite subject is Astrology and Astronomy,” Akko said. 

“Not just because Professor Ursula is the teacher?” Diana questioned. 

“I mean, that’s certainly part of it, but I just like learning more about space, just like my profile says,” Akko said. 

“Now that I’m reminded, we should get going, we’re going to be late for  _ my  _ favorite class, you know how Professor Finnelan gets,” Diana said. 

Akko shuddered at the thought of Professor Finnelan’s scolding. 

“Yeah, let’s go,” Akko said. 

They left the café and started heading towards class. Along the way, Akko decided to ask, 

“Why do you like Magic Linguistics anyway?” 

“I like learning about different cultures, languages are the best way to communicate with people who are different from you and I,” Diana said. 

“Kakkoī,” Akko said in Japanese. 

“Yes, it is,” Diana responded simply. 

“Wait, you know Japanese?” Akko asked. 

“Bits and pieces of it,” Diana said. 

“You’re so amazing,” Akko said, kissing her soulmate’s right cheek. 

“Um, thank you,” Diana said, scratching her other cheek with her finger.

“You’re welcome,” Akko said, with a smile. 

They walked the rest of the way holding each other’s hands and only let go when Professor Finnelan reminded them by clearing her throat. They both blushed with embarrassment and then went to sit down. They sat behind each other instead of next to each other, because Professor Finnelan thought they would be a distraction for each other, that’s actually how it was in all classes except Professor Ursula’s, she was the only one that didn’t mind, she actually thought sitting next to each other would be good for them. They accepted this condition, especially since they were already so used to it anyway and listened to the lecture, taking notes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School starts tomorrow for me, luckily, I have all of my drafts for the next chapters already saved here, I just need to post them according to the schedule I made for myself. Wish me luck, God knows how much I need it, taking all AP and Honors classes.


	12. His Thoughts and Her Guitar

Diana was sitting in the courtyard under the shade of a tree, strumming her guitar. Mr. Clive invaded _her_ thoughts this time. 

_“Hello, Ms. Cavendish, you play the guitar for real? Quite unexpected for a witch of your caliber,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“Mr. Madison Clive? So Akko really was right,”_ Diana said. 

_“So she told you? I should’ve expected that,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“What do you want?”_ Diana asked. 

_“Can you talk with your soulmate like this, perhaps?”_ Mr. Clive asked. 

_“That’s none of your concern,”_ Diana said. 

_“That’s quite alright, we’re all entitled to our secrets,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“How often do you do this?”_ Diana asked. 

_“That is my own business, you don’t need to know,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“Well, then, have you done this with others besides Akko and I?”_ Diana asked. 

_“Yes,”_ Mr. Clive said simply. 

_“So, why us?”_ Diana asked. 

_“I think you already know the answer to that,”_ Mr. Clive said ominously. 

_“What do you mean by that?”_ Diana asked. 

_“I guess you’re not as smart as I thought, here I thought you could be powerful enough to match me, but I guess I thought wrong,”_ Mr. Clive said, slightly disappointed. 

_“Why do you think that Mr. Clive?”_ Diana asked. 

_“Don’t worry, you still have time and space for improvement,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“I’m quite aware that I do, I don’t need the likes of you to tell me that,”_ Diana said. 

_“Do you know what day it is?”_ Mr. Clive asked. 

_“October 14th, why?”_ Diana asked. 

_“You still have three months and twelve days left,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“That date would be January 26th, what’s happening then?”_ Diana asked. 

_“I know you’re not one to be underestimated, so prove that to me,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“How?”_ Diana asked. 

_“Something’s going to happen on January 26th, prepare yourself,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“For what?”_ Diana asked. 

_“A Clive never tells,”_ Mr. Clive said mysteriously. 

_“So I’ve learned,”_ Diana said. 

Mr. Clive heard a knock on his door. 

_“Sorry, Ms. Cavendish, I have another matter to attend to,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

He left her thoughts and left her to continue playing the guitar, while he answered the door and talked to Rathika. Akko was practicing flying, she got up in the air with her broom and turned to see her soulmate sitting under a tree playing the guitar, singing to the tune she was playing. Akko flew behind the tree and landed her broom. She walked up to her and put her hands on Diana’s eyes from behind, blocking her vision, causing her to stop playing. 

“Guess who,” Akko said in a sing-songy voice. 

“Okay, I’ll play along, Amanda?” Diana asked. 

“Nope,” Akko said. 

“Lotte or Sucy?” Diana asked. 

“Nope, but closer,” Akko said. 

“Are you either of my teammates by chance?” Diana asked. 

“Nope, not them,” Akko said. 

“I know it’s you Akko, you can uncover my eyes now,” Diana said. 

Akko removed her hands and lowered them to clasp her arms around Diana’s neck. Diana looked up at her and smiled. 

“Were you just playing with me?” Akko asked, slightly annoyed, pouting. 

“Yes, I knew it was you the whole time,” Diana poked her cheek. 

“You were really good,” Akko said. 

“At what? You have to be more specific, love,” Diana said. 

Akko blushed and started stumbling over her words trying to get a grasp of what to say. She took a deep breath and regained her composure. 

“At playing the guitar, you have a really nice voice too,” Akko said. 

“Well, thank you,” Diana said. 

Akko let go of Diana’s neck and trailed her hands down the sides of her body. Diana felt her breath hitch slightly. Akko smirked and put her hands on top of Diana’s where they were positioned on her guitar. Akko put her head over her soulmate’s shoulder and guided her to start playing, she started playing and Akko let go, letting her arms float to the side putting her palms to the grass and leaned back on the tree. Akko started singing along to the song Diana was playing. Diana leaned back on her and smiled as she continued, it was her first time hearing Akko sing and she quite enjoyed it. She finished playing and put her guitar to the side. 

“Why did you stop?” Akko asked. 

“I have something I want to tell you,” Diana said. 

“What?” Akko asked. 

“Mr. Clive, he…” Diana trailed off. 

“He invaded your thoughts, didn’t he,” Akko said. 

“How did you know?” Diana asked. 

“Good intuition, I guess,” Akko shrugged. 

“He asked me if I could have a thought conversation with you, he told me that he’s invaded other people’s thoughts besides us, and that something important is happening on January 26th,” Diana said. 

“What did you say?” Akko asked. 

“I didn’t tell him anything about our whole thought thing, I don't know who else’s thoughts he’s invaded, and he told me nothing about January 26th saying ‘A Clive never tells’,” Diana said. 

“Well, that’s definitely _something,_ should we tell Professor Ursula?” Akko asked. 

“That would be wise, just let me put my guitar back and I’ll meet you there,” Diana said. 

“Okay, I have to put my broom back as well,” Akko said. 

They both got up and went their separate ways, Akko going to put her broom back in the shed and Diana going back to her room to put her guitar back. Akko walked into the classroom and was greeted by Professor Ursula. 

“Hello, Akko, what can I help you with?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“It’s about Mr. Clive,” Akko said. 

Diana walked into the classroom as soon as Akko mentioned Mr. Clive. 

“He invaded both of our thoughts,” Diana said. 

“He did? For what reason?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“I don’t know, all he did was tell me more about himself,” Akko said. 

“He told me that something will happen on January 26th,” Diana said. 

“Do you know what?” Professor Ursula asked. 

“No, he didn’t say anything about it, apparently, ‘A Clive never tells’,” Diana said. 

“He told me that his soulmate rejected him and he hates the connection that certain soulmates have, like Diana’s parents’,” Akko said. 

“Maybe Mr. Clive has something to do with this,” Professor Ursula said. 

“Are you talking about Professor Wellard?” Akko asked. 

“Yes, maybe he took over a student’s body,” Professor Ursula said. 

“Who could it be?” Diana asked. 

“I don’t know, probably someone who takes the class,” Professor Ursula said. 

“We still haven’t talked to Jordan about it, maybe we should,” Akko told Diana. 

“Yes, we need to,” Diana said. 

“I’ll research more about Mr. Clive, I let you know if I find anything interesting, The Clive’s tend to be more reserved and private, so I probably won’t find much, but I’ll still inform you,” Professor Ursula said. 

“That’s good, we should let you go back to whatever you were doing,” Akko said. 

“Oh, you’re no bother, it’s fine,” Professor Ursula said. 

They started to leave but Professor Ursula said something else. 

“By the way, you both got a hundred on the last assignment, good job,” 

“Oh my gosh, thank you so much,” Akko said and then kissed Diana. 

“Your welcome, but I only helped a little bit, you did most of the studying yourself,” Diana said. 

“But you still helped me, so thank you,” Akko said, hugging her. 

“Your welcome, again,” Diana blushed. 

“It was nice hearing you play the guitar,” Akko said. 

“It was nice hearing you sing,” Diana said. 

“We do make a good team,” Akko said. 

“Indeed,” Diana agreed. 

Akko walked away to her room and then turned back to wave at Diana. 

“Good night, love you, see you tomorrow,” Akko said with a wide smile. 

“Good night, love you too,” Diana chuckled. 

Diana looked ahead and Akko was already gone, so she went back to her own room as well. She changed out of her uniform and went to bed. 


	13. Let's Talk

Akko and Diana were in the café, they got their food, which thanks to them releasing the Grand Triskelion and unrestricting magic, was no longer just potatoes, this is because Luna Nova finally rebuilt their funds after everybody started to appreciate magic more. They walked over to where Jordan and her teammates were sitting. 

“Hey, Jordan, how are you?” Akko asked. 

Jordan was talking with her teammates but turned at the mention of her name to see Akko and Diana looking at her. 

“I’m good, how are you two?” Jordan asked. 

“We’re good,” they both replied in unison. 

Jessica and Rachel also stopped conversing and looked at them, they were wide-eyed and their jaws dropped in surprise. 

“Oh, meet my teammates, Jessica Liu and Rachel Jackson,” Jordan said. 

“So the rumor really was true,” Rachel said. 

“Seems to be, just look at them, so much power,” Jessica said in awe. 

“What rumor?” Akko asked. 

“What do you mean by ‘so much power’?” Diana asked. 

“Oh, there was a rumor floating around saying that the two of you are soulmates,” Rachel said. 

“You don’t feel it? It’s like there’s power radiating off of you when you stand together,” Jessica said. 

“I can confirm that Akko and I are indeed soulmates but I still don’t understand what you mean by our power, you can feel other’s power?” Diana asked. 

“Yeah, it’s a special skill I have, the Liu family is a pretty well-known magic family in China, not to the level of the Fei’s of course, but we can sense certain auras of power,” Jessica said. 

“That’s so cool,” Akko commented. 

“It seems that when you’re next to each other, it’s like your auras combine to form one extremely powerful one,” Jessica said. 

“I guess we’re stronger than we thought,” Akko said. 

“Yes, you are, but this is only when you’re together, separately, you will never stand a chance against magic-users like the top ten,” Jessica said. 

“Oh, that’s what we’re here to talk about,” Akko said. 

“The top ten?” Jordan asked. 

“Yes, but more specifically, Madison Clive,” Diana said. 

Jordan shuddered and tensed at the mere mention of his name. Akko saw this and decided to comment on it. 

“So you do know something, you’re tense, I can see it,” 

“I must admit, he scares me,” Jordan said. 

“He is quite intimidating, to say the least,” Diana said. 

“So, what do you want to know?” Jordan asked. 

“Anything and everything, preferably,” Akko said. 

“Well, he has invaded my thoughts before,” Jordan said. 

“He what!?” Akko yelled out in surprise. 

Almost the entire café heard and stared at her, she covered her face in embarrassment. This only lasted a moment as the other students just went back to eating and talking with their friends. 

“No wonder they call you such an idiot,” Jessica said offhandedly. 

Akko stepped forward to defend herself, but Diana put an arm in front of her to block her. 

“Say that again,” Diana dared. 

“No wonder they call Akko such an idiot,” Jessica said again. 

“No one calls Akko an idiot in my presence, do you get that?” Diana asked in her commanding voice. 

“Eep, yes,” Jessica said meekly. 

“Woah, scary, I would never want to get on your bad side,” Rachel said. 

“Yes, that would be wise, I’m extremely protective of the things and people I love,” Diana said. 

“I can see that,” Jessica said. 

“Anyway, so what is this about Mr. Clive invading Jordan’s thoughts?” Rachel asked. 

“Um, the really only thing of significance he told me is something about January 26th,” Jordan said. 

“He told me the same thing,” Diana said. 

“He said for me to come visit him at his work,” Jordan said. 

“It might be a trap,” Akko said. 

_“Yes, it very well could be, but I would really like to see him for myself,”_ Jordan thought. 

Mr. Clive appeared in her thoughts again. 

_“You would now, huh? That’s nice,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“They will get you,”_ Jordan said. 

_“I've no doubt they will,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“What do you mean by that?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“Who knows?”_ Mr. Clive asked mysteriously. 

Jordan was about to ask something more but Mr. Clive already left. 

_“Gosh, he sure is quick,”_ Jordan thought. 

“It could be,” Jordan said. 

“Did he say anything else?” Diana asked. 

_“Should I rat him out? I would really like to, but that seems unwise,”_ Jordan thought. 

“No, he didn’t,” Jordan lied. 

“Anything about himself?” Akko asked. 

“He said he’s 32, his favorite color is tea green, and his favorite employee is Rathika Chavla,” Jordan said. 

“Rathika Chavla as in rank nine Rathika Chavla?” Akko asked. 

“Who else? The Clive’s always have a Chavla working for them,” Jordan said. 

“How do you know?” Akko asked. 

“I just looked it up,” Jordan shrugged. 

“Oh, um… do you think he has something to do with Professor Wellard?” Akko asked. 

_“He most certainly does,”_ Jordan thought. 

“I don’t know, he might, he’s certainly powerful enough,” Jordan said. 

“Powerful enough to take over bodies?” Akko asked. 

“For sure, I was at a conference with some of the most powerful magic families over the summer and I could sense his aura from like a mile away, you were there too, Diana, am I right?” Jessica asked. 

“Yes, I was representing my family,” Diana replied. 

“Why not your aunt?” Akko asked. 

“She was there, but it was illegitimate, so I had to be the one to talk,” Diana said. 

“Oh, right. So you’re saying that Mr. Clive is capable of such a thing?” Akko asked. 

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” Jessica said. 

“Good to know,” Akko said. 

“Also, another thing, Mr. Clive’s aura might be really powerful, but everyone there was powerful, Fei Wong Reed’s was way stronger than Mr. Clive’s. I would say Diana’s was a little more than half as strong as Mr. Clive’s, but with Akko next to her, it’s more than twice as strong, not to Mr. Fei’s level of power, but pretty close,” Jessica said. 

“Really?” Akko asked. 

“Yes, really, like I would love to have a connection like yours kind of strong, the literal definition of a power couple,” Jessica said. 

“That’s so cool,” Rachel chimed. 

“We’re really that strong together?” Diana asked. 

“Yes. It could explain why you were able to use Shiny Arc together to take down the missile, even if only the chosen one could use it,” Jessica said. 

“All I did was support her though,” Diana said. 

“No. You cast it together, we all saw, you two cast the spell in unison and shot the arrow together,” Jordan insisted. 

“Took the words straight out of my mouth,” Jessica said. 

“Yeah, Jordan’s right, don’t sell yourself short,” Akko said, patting Diana’s back. 

“I guess,” Diana said. 

“So, nothing else on Mr. Clive, I’m guessing,” Akko said. 

“I’m afraid not,” Jordan said. 

_“Unless telling you that he was the one who killed Professor Wellard, which would be really bad for me,”_ Jordan thought. 

_“Yes, it would,”_ Mr. Clive chimed. 

_“You’re back? How are you capable of doing this so quickly?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“That’s nothing you should concern yourself with. I’m glad you’ve managed to keep up this façade for this long,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“Well, you’re welcome, it’s been hard trying to keep this up,”_ Jordan replied.

Mr. Clive thanked her and left her thoughts again. 

“Well, that’s unfortunate, we were hoping you knew something that could lead us closer to solving this case,” Akko said. 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help,” Jordan said. 

“It’s fine, at least we know we’re powerful enough,” Akko said, putting an arm around Diana. 

“Let me tell you again, that’s only if you two are together,” Jessica said. 

“Don’t worry, it’s going to be very difficult to separate those two,” Jordan said to her. 

The two of them just nodded. 

“Can we sit?” Akko asked. 

“Yeah, of course,” Jordan said. 

They put their plates on the table and sat down. They ate their meal, which consisted of chicken breast, a roll with butter, and roasted vegetables, but not potatoes, that would be a different day. They finished and threw away their plates before going back to their friends and wishing them goodbye before returning to their dorms to study and get an early night’s sleep.

  
  



	14. Do I Know You?

Jason Wellard, Professor Wellard’s son, walked into another seemingly normal day at Appleton Academy, he was not informed about any of the events surrounding his mother, until he walked into a crowd of students looking at a news article on another student’s phone that is. The student, who happened to be Andrew, attracted all the attention, but now it was on his phone instead of him. Jason walked up to them and they all turned to face him. 

“What’s happening?” Jason asked. 

“Did you hear what happened to your mom?” Jason’s friend Peter Franelli asked. 

“No, what about her? Last I checked she was teaching at Luna Nova,” Jason said. 

“The headline reads Magical Arts professor at Luna Nova, Julia Wellard, found dead by a group of second-years who heard a gunshot ringing through the halls,” Andrew said. 

“How have I not heard? When did this happen?” Jason asked. 

“This says it happened a few weeks ago, September 20th,” Andrew said. 

“And what’s today?” Jason asked. 

“October 17th,” Peter said. 

“Bloody hell,” Jason cried out, balling his hands into fists. 

He punched the wall next to him and cried out in pain, then he covered his face with his hands and started crying. 

“Who could’ve done this? Everyone loved my mother,” Jason said in between sobs. 

Peter put a hand on his shoulder and he looked up uncovering his face, tears streaming down it. 

“It’s okay,” Peter said, bringing him in for a tight hug. 

Peter patted the back of Jason’s head and brought it down to his shoulder, he didn’t care that his shoulder was now wet with tears, he just wanted to comfort his friend. Jason wondered why Peter was being so caring, he brought his head up, rubbed his eyes and face to rid his tears and looked down to his brightly glowing necklace, shaped like the bristles and ferrule of a paintbrush and looked at Peter’s necklace which was glowing equally as bright, it looked like the handle of a paintbrush, eerily like the handle that matches Jason’s other half. 

“Are you my soulmate?” Jason asked out of the blue. 

Peter tilted his head in confusion. 

“How would I know?” Peter asked.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, that was a stupid question,” Jason chuckled. 

“We can go visit her later, if you want,” Peter said. 

“Yeah, I would really like that,” Jason said. 

“Okay, meet me in the courtyard after school, we can go by the flower shop and by flowers for her grave, if that’s okay with you,” Peter said. 

“Sure, see you later,” Jason said. 

He walked away from the crowd and went to his class. It was a study hall, so he opened his notebook and started writing notes. After he finished, he started sketching, he was surprised when he looked to see he was drawing Peter, with his broad shoulders, curly brunette hair, dark brown eyes, defined bone structure, and tall stature. He blushed and closed his notebook and put it back in his bag. The bell rang and he walked back into the hall to see students still surrounded around Andrew, but they looked up when they saw him and started murmuring. 

“That’s that professor’s son, right?” one of the students asked. 

“The one who got killed?” another student asked. 

“Yeah, Luna Nova sure is full of surprises,” the student said. 

“Certainly,” Andrew agreed. 

“What do you mean by that?” Frank asked. 

“You know the two witches who shot down that missile go there, right?” Andrew asked. 

“Oh, right, Atsuko Kagari and Diana Cavendish,” Frank said. 

_“Who are they?”_ Jason thought. 

He hid his head in his hoodie to avoid catching more attention as he walked into the courtyard. Mr. Clive thought this was the right time to invade his thoughts. 

_“Hello, Jason,”_ Mr. Clive greeted. 

_“Who are you? I swear I’ve heard that voice before, do I know you?”_ Jason asked. 

_“My name is Madison Clive, I’m sure you’ve heard of me,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“I remember now, you’re that really powerful wizard who’s the CEO of Clive Enterprises,”_ Jason said. 

_“Yes, I am, but there’s also something you don’t know,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“What?”_ Jason asked. 

_“Oh, that’s for me to know and you to find out,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“Do you know the two witches who shot down that missile last year?”_ Jason asked. 

_“Of course, Atsuko Kagari and Diana Cavendish of Luna Nova, what about them?”_ Mr. Cliva asked. 

_“Who are they?”_ Jason asked. 

_“I’m surprised you don’t know about them, maybe you should ask Mr. Hanbridge, he’s friends with both of them,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“Andrew knows them?”_ Jason asked. 

_“Yes, I can say that they’re both second-year students and soulmates, but that’s all I can really say about them,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“The two of them are soulmates?”_ Jason asked. 

_“And they have a really strong connection as well,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

Jason felt someone tap his shoulder. 

_“Oh, I should let you go,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

He said goodbye and left Jason’s thoughts. Jason turned around to see Peter looking at him with a smile. 

“Hello,” Jason greeted. 

“Hello, ready to go?” Peter asked. 

“Yeah,” Jason said. 

They walked into town and saw a quaint flower shop, they walked in and saw three girls with Luna Nova uniforms, one with a red ribbon, one with a blue ribbon, and one with an indigo ribbon. 

“Do you go to Luna Nova by chance?” Jason asked. 

They turned around to face the two boys wearing Appleton uniforms. 

“Yes, and you two must be from Appleton,” the blonde responded. 

“I’m Jason Wellard and this is my friend, Peter Franelli, who are you?” Jason asked. 

“Wellard as in Professor Wellard? Are you two related?” the brunette asked. 

“Akko! You can’t just ask things like that out of the blue,” the blonde chastised her. 

“No, it’s okay, I’m her son, we were just getting flowers for her grave, we just found out she was killed,” Jason said. 

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” The dark-brown girl said, putting her hands over her heart. 

“It’s okay, I didn’t see her that often anyway, I don’t have many memories of her, I live with my dad, they lived separately, but the time I did spend with her was some of the best times of my life,” Jason said. 

The blonde remembered the time she spent with her parents and started crying as she leaned on the brunette. She put her arms around her and comforted her as the dark-brown haired girl looked at a bouquet of flowers to buy for the same reason Jason was. 

“Oh, Diana, it’s okay, you’re so strong, I’m sure your parents are really proud of you, just like I am,” the brunette said, rubbing her hands across her back. 

“Wait, are you Diana Cavendish?” Jason asked. 

She lifted her head off the brunette’s shoulder and wiped her tears away before turning to the two boys again. 

“Yeah, that’s my name, I apologize for you having to see me like that,” Diana said. 

“You shouldn’t have to apologize for crying over your parents. Oh, sorry, I’m Atsuko Kagari, feel free to call me Akko,” she said. 

“I’m Jordan Conners, we were going to see Professor Wellard’s grave as well,” she said, holding a bouquet in her hands. 

“Oh, were you her students?” Peter asked. 

“They’re just here as my company, I was one of her students though,” Jordan said as she paid for the flowers. 

“Do you like to draw and paint too?” Jason asked. 

“Yeah, it’s my passion, that's why I’m taking the class,” Jordan said. 

“Yeah, you use magic to draw, though, am I right?” Jason asked. 

“I do, I’m assuming you just use normal tools like pen and paintbrushes, I don’t know much about the non-magic world,” Jordan said. 

“Yes, I can show you some of my drawings if you like,” Jason said. 

“Sure, you can show me them at the grave, I’m sure you would like to get your flowers,” Jordan said. 

“Oh, right,” Jason said. 

It seems as though Peter already beat him to the punch and bought a bouquet of flowers when they were talking. The flowers were blocking his face and he brought them down and tilted them towards Jason, he smelled them and took them from his hands. 

“That’s so romantic,” Jordan commented. 

They both blushed and started stumbling over their words. 

“I- um… we’re not together,” Jason stuttered. 

“That literally looked like something Akko would do for me, not that I’d be opposed to that,” Diana said. 

“Then maybe I should surprise you,” Akko said. 

“With what?” Diana asked. 

Akko brought out a bouquet of flowers she bought from behind her and got down on one knee as she extended them towards her. 

“Will you go to the Halloween dance with me?” Akko asked. 

Diana graciously took the flowers and nodded. 

“Of course, I will,” Diana replied. 

“Aww,” Jordan, Jason, and Peter cooed in unison. 

“But really though, your necklaces are glowing really bright, are you sure you’re not soulmates?” Jordan asked, referring to Jason and Peter. 

“I don’t know, I did ask him earlier,” Jason said. 

“I will reiterate, how am I supposed to know?” Peter asked. 

“You guys are exactly like Amanda and Hannah,” Akko said. 

“Who are they?” Jason asked. 

“Our oblivious friends,” Akko said. 

“That’s putting it lightly, have you seen the looks they give each other?” Diana asked. 

“Yes, not as much as you probably, but yeah, definitely, those looks are way more than just platonic,” Akko said. 

“What made you two realize you’re soulmates?” Jason asked. 

“Well, funny story actually…” Akko trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck. 

“I didn’t actually start wearing my necklace again until the end of last year, I wore it when I was a kid, but I stopped wearing it after my parents died,” Diana said. 

“She showed it to me after she found me sitting alone in the snow. She brought me to _Last Wednesday Society_ , where she showed me a premium Shiny Chariot card and her necklace, that’s when I realized we had more in common than I thought,” Akko said. 

She pulled the card out of her coat and showed it to them. 

“You keep it on you?” Diana asked. 

“Well, yeah, it’s my most prized possession, every time I look at it, it’s a reminder of my other half, quite literally might I add,” Akko said. 

“What do you mean ‘literally’?” Jason asked. 

“Our necklaces form the Believing Heart Chariot card, the one that Akko is holding to be more precise,” Diana said. 

“Oh, I get it, should we get going now? It’s going to get late soon,” Jason said. 

They looked at the time on their phones, reading 16:28. 

“Yeah, let’s go,” Jordan said. 

They walked out of the flower shop with three bouquets of flowers. They walked towards the gravesite, they knew it was to close at 19:00 and that curfew was 21:00, so they had to get back before then. They reached the gravesite around 16:45 and walked up to Professor Wellard’s grave. 

“Here lies Julia Wellard, loving mother, and teacher,” Jordan read putting her flowers down by the grave. 

The gravestone quote read: I PAINTED MY PICTURE NOW PAINT YOURS, Jason and Jordan chuckled. 

“Of course, that’s my mother for you,” Jason said, wiping a tear from his eye, putting his bouquet down. 

“I feel like I’ve seen you before, do I know you from somewhere?” Jordan asked. 

“Unless you’ve been Appleton, then no, I’m a third-year and I’ve never seen Luna Nova, maybe you’ve seen me at an art showcase, that’s the only other thing it could possibly be,” Jason said. 

“Oh, I remember, I saw you at the Blytonbury Art Showcase last year, I was there with my dad, you were with Peter there too, I heard a lot of people comment on your necklaces,” Jordan said. 

“Did you see my work?” Jason asked. 

“Yeah, some pieces, they said you’re really good with realism, I heard you got second in the high school division,” Jordan said. 

“Here let me show you,” Jason said. 

He took his notebook out of his bag and flipped to his sketches, he unknowingly flipped to his sketch of Peter from earlier. 

“I see you drew your boyfriend,” Jordan teased. 

Jason turned his notebook around to see the sketch and flushed with embarrassment. 

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Jason said adamantly. 

“We both know when you draw you usually draw the thing that is at the forefront of your mind first,” Jordan said. 

“He’s just a friend, I don’t even like him in that way, nor does he like me in that way,” Jason insisted. 

“Sure,” Jordan said sarcastically. 

“Peter literally gave you flowers in one of the most romantic ways possible,” Akko said. 

“But you went on one knee for Diana,” Jason shot back. 

“Good point, but she’s my soulmate and my girlfriend, I did that to ask her to a dance. If he was just being friendly, he would’ve handed them to you like normal,” Akko said. 

“Yeah, it sure as hell looked romantic to me,” Jordan said. 

Jason looked up at the sky and the sun was starting to set. 

“Well, we better leave soon, it’s getting late,” Jason said to try and change the subject. 

They looked at the time which read 18:17. 

“Hey, you’re just trying to change the subject,” Jordan said, pointing an accusatory finger at him. 

“It’s okay if he doesn’t want to admit it and yeah, he’s right, it is getting late, the cemetery closes at 19:00 and we need to get back before curfew,” Akko said. 

“Let me pay my last respects, then we can go,” Jordan said. 

She whispered some words and then brought her hands together and brought them down in a praying position. 

“Okay, we can go,” Jordan said. 

They walked out of the cemetery and as the Appleton boys walked the way back to their own academy, the Luna Nova girls mounted their brooms and flew back to theirs as well.


	15. Let's Dance

Tonight is the Luna Nova Halloween Dance. Akko was in her room shaking in her heels, she was nervous, and couldn’t really walk well. She was scared of disappointing her girlfriend and couldn’t dance for the life of her. 

“I don’t think I can handle this,” Akko said. 

“You’re going to be fine,” Lotte reassured. 

“You certainly don’t look like you are,” Sucy snickered. 

“I’m not wearing these shoes,” Akko said, kicking them off. 

She put her heels away in favor of wearing flats, she felt way better in those. 

“At least you’re not shaking anymore,” Lotte said. 

“I should’ve gotten dance lessons, I feel like I’m going to mess up and embarrass myself in front of her,” Akko said. 

“You make a fool out of yourself almost everyday, do you think she’s going to think of you any different?” Sucy asked. 

“Way to make a girl feel better,” Akko said, rolling her eyes. 

“Sucy’s right, you’re clumsy, reckless, and excitable, but you’re also cheerful, hopeful, and optimistic, she doesn’t care what you look like, she cares about who you are, so got out there and have the time of your life, even if you end up making a huge fool of yourself,” Lotte said. 

“Woo! Yeah, thank you,” Akko said with a big smile, pumping her fist into the air with determination. 

Akko was wearing a red dress which complimented her eyes, had her red school ribbon tied around her waist with her wand attached to it, and her hair put up in a bun. She had on plain black flats, which in her opinion was better than wearing heels and walked out of the room holding a dark red carnation. She was really going for the red theme. It was a masquerade dance, so she held a mask in her other hand. She walked over to Diana’s room with Lotte as Sucy went by herself to the ballroom. She knocked on the door and Diana answered. She was wearing a blue dress, much in the same fashion Akko was wearing her red one, it was the same one she wore to Andrew’s party last year. Akko remembered that night like it was yesterday, Diana was stung by the love bee and confessed to her, well, look at where they are now. 

“Hello, Akko, you look really beautiful,” Diana said. 

“You do too, here,” Akko said, attaching the flower to her hair. 

“Is Barbara here?” Lotte asked. 

“Yeah, she’s just getting ready,” Diana said. 

Barbara and Hannah finished fixing their hair and walked up to the door. Everyone was holding a mask by their side. 

“Hey, Lotte, nice dress, you look really beautiful,” Barbara complimented. 

“You do too,” Lotte said. 

“Well, let’s go before I become more of a third wheel then I already am,” Hannah said. 

“But you have a date too, don’t you?” Barbara asked. 

“Amanda and I are going just as friends, she’s not my date,” Hannah said. 

Everybody gave her a ‘really?’ kind of expression like they highly doubted that that was the case. 

“What?” Hannah asked, confused. 

“You sure you’re just friends? It really doesn’t seem like it to me,” Barbara said. 

“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Akko said. 

“What do you know that I don’t?” Hannah asked. 

“I don’t know a lot of things, but at least I know soulmates when I see them,” Akko said. 

“How?” Hannah asked. 

“Oh, back in Japan magic isn’t really a big thing, so I made my way studying soulmates, in fact, my idol behind Chariot is Fei Wong Reed,” Akko said. 

“The top magic-user in the world? Nearly everyone looks up to him, that’s not that special,” Hannah said. 

“I know it’s not, I look up to him because he knows more about the study of soulmates than anyone else, I would love to meet him some day and hear his ideas,” Akko said. 

“I actually met him at the conference I went to over the summer, I can get you in contact with him if you’d like,” Diana said. 

“Really? That would be great, thank you,” Akko said. 

“Your welcome, now let’s go,” Diana said. 

The three of them stepped out of the room as Diana closed the door behind her. She walked alongside Akko and Barbara walked with Lotte, Hannah was just there on the side. They walked into the ballroom to see many students wearing masks under dim light dancing to the loud music that was playing. They noticed Jasminka at the food table talking with her teammates and surprisingly Sucy, they walked up to them and greeted them. 

“Took you long enough,” Sucy said. 

“Sorry,” Akko apologized. 

“Is that a red carnation in your hair Cav? Damn, Akko really knows what she’s doing,” Amanda said. 

“What do you mean?” Diana asked. 

“You don’t know what carnations mean?” Amanda asked. 

“No, I’m afraid I don’t,” Diana said. 

Amanda was about to say something but Akko jumped in front of her, beating her to it. 

“Dark red carnations mean deep love and affection,” 

“Really? Well, then, I may not have any flowers but I love you too,” Diana said. 

The upbeat song turned into a more slow one and couples started dancing, most of them being really good friends, but some were actually together. Akko extended her hand for Diana to take. 

“Want to dance?” Akko asked. 

“Do you even know how?” Diana asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“No, but you can teach me,” Akko said. 

“Fair enough,” Diana said. 

Diana took Akko’s hand and guided her in the steps, she caught on surprisingly quick and matched her with perfect rhythm and accuracy. 

“Is this how you do it?” Akko asked as she danced. 

“Yes, you catch on pretty quick,” Diana replied. 

“I guess I had a good teacher,” Akko smiled. 

They kept dancing to the slow song and looked over each other’s shoulders, Akko saw Barbara and Lotte and Diana saw Hannah and Amanda. 

_ “Their necklaces are glowing so bright, they are literally standing right in front of each other, how have they not realized yet?”  _ Diana thought. 

_ “Aww! They’re so cute, I’m glad Lotte finally found her soulmate,”  _ Akko thought. 

Suddenly, Diana twirled Akko and dipped her, planting a kiss on her lips. She was surprised at first, but she accepted it as part of the dance. Everyone saw this as they felt their commanding presence because you know what Jessica said, ‘the literal definition of a power couple’. They stood in shock, wide-eyed, the teachers so this too, of course. Professor Ursula was there with Croix, she got permission from her probation officers to come.

“How did no one know they were together?” Croix whispered. 

“I don’t know, but I mean, no one knew we were together, did you see the shocked look on their faces when they found out?” Professor Ursula laughed. 

“Yeah, that was pretty funny,” Croix said. 

They both noticed the other students staring at them and blushed. 

“I guess that drew attention, huh,” Akko chucked. 

“Let them look, I want everyone to know that the beautiful girl in front of them is my soulmate,” Diana said. 

Amanda whistled from behind them and their seven friends cheered, including Constanze, who rarely speaks. Jordan also appeared behind them. 

“I didn’t expect her to be so bold,” Jordan said. 

Professor Ursula and Croix walked up behind them as well. 

“Hello, everyone,” Professor Ursula greeted. 

They turned to look at them. 

“Hello, Professor, and woah, Croix too,” Amanda said. 

“Hello, Ms. O’Neill, I got permission from the ministry to come here, don’t be alarmed,” Croix said. 

“Oh, okay, you better not have any more hidden missiles or something,” Amanda warned. 

“Nothing of the sort, I’m unarmed,” Croix said. 

“Okay, good,” Amanda said. 

Everyone went back to dancing as the couple they were looking at stopped and walked back to their friends. 

“Well, that was certainly unexpected,” Professor Ursula said. 

“I was surprised too, Professor,” Akko said. 

“I guess my magic works in other ways as well,” Diana said. 

Suddenly, a loud bang erupted in the ballroom. Did someone decide it was a good idea to crash the dance? The witches readied themselves as they prepared to grab their wands from their sides. A middle-aged Indian woman holding a wand walked into the room. She cast a spell which sealed and trapped the students in the room. 

“Hello, students and staff of Luna Nova, my name is Rathika Chavla and I’ve been sent to deal with some meddling students who’ve been getting in the way of my boss’s plans,” she said. 

Some students tried to push the door open to escape but couldn’t. 

“That’s no use, all the exits are sealed,” Rathika said. 

“So we’re trapped in here?” one of the students asked. 

“Yes, now, I need the New Nine Witches to step forward,” Rathika said. 

They grabbed the wands and stepped forward. 

“What do you want from us?” Akko asked. 

“You and your friends are getting in the way,  **Murowa** ,” Rathika cast. 

Diana cast a shield to reflect it, hitting it back at Rathika, but she dodged it. 

“And you, you get on my nerves the most,” Rathika said. 

“Why is that? I’m not aware of the fact I did anything to you Ms. Rank Nine,” Diana said. 

“It’s not just limited to you, all the Cavendish’s get on my nerves,” Rathika said. 

“I’m afraid I don’t understand. What did my family ever do to you?” Diana asked. 

“It’s what you stand for, you think everyone is worth saving, it’s such a naïve way of thinking, you see the good in everyone even if they seem irredeemable, I absolutely hate it,” Rathika said. 

Diana whispered something in Akko’s ear and she nodded. They extended the arms and crossed their wands over each other. 

“ **Ein Ein Sof, Ein Sof Ohr: Luna Lana,”** They cast in unison. 

Two yellow ribbons of magic came out of their wands and wrapped around Rathika, rendering her magic useless. She tried to cast a spell but nothing happened. 

“I guess what Mr. Clive said was true,” Rathika said. 

“What did he say?” Akko asked. 

“You two are way more powerful than you know,” Rathika said. 

“What does Mr. Clive want with us?” Diana asked. 

“Even I don’t know the answer to that question Ms. Cavendish, you know how he is with his secrets,” Rathika said. 

“Yeah, I know, ‘A Clive never tells’,” Diana said. 

“I have a lot of things to say about you two, but I’ll refrain from doing so, for now,” Rathika said. 

“Do you think we’re scared of you or something?” Akko asked. 

“Oh, you’re far from fearful, that much I know,” Rathika said. 

“Then tell us what you want to,” Akko said. 

“I can’t believe this is who Mr. Clive is so scared of, you look like a clumsy dumbass who needs assistance to cast any type of spell beyond basic ones,” Rathika directed at Akko. 

“I’ve heard something to that extent almost everyday since moving to Luna Nova, I can’t count the number of times I’ve been called stupid, an idiot, or a dumbass, sometimes even by my own friends, because I know I am, I know I’ll never be at the same level as my soulmate, but that will  _ never  _ stop me from trying,” Akko said. 

“You are certainly a bundle of surprises, Ms. Kagari,” Rathika said. 

The effects of  **Luna Lana** were temporary and already wore off, she undid the seals on the doors. 

“I undid the seals, you’re free to leave if you desire,” Rathika said. 

Almost everyone left and went back to their dorms save for red, blue, green, and indigo teams, along with some professors and Croix. 

“Doesn’t your cousin work in the ministry?” Croix asked. 

“You must be Ms. Meridies, Arshand tells me about how you’re working in the new Modern Magic department,” Rathika said. 

“Yes, I’m working with them under probation, Arshand has told me all about how he has  _ two  _ family members in the top ten, he’s very proud of you,” Croix said. 

“Are you Ms. Conners by any chance?” Rathika asked, looking at Jordan. 

“Yes, I am. You work for Mr. Clive, am I right?” Jordan asked. 

“Yes, I’m his assistant,” Rathika said. 

“No wonder you’re his favorite employee,” Jordan said. 

“No wonder you’re his favorite pawn to play with,” Rathika whispered in her ear. 

This sent a shiver down Jordan’s spine and not in a good way. 

“Pardon?” Jordan whispered cautiously. 

“I’ve already said enough, I must be going,” Rathika said. 

Rathika cast a spell and disappeared leaving a poof of smoke behind.

“Woah! Did she just teleport?” Amanda asked. 

“Witches are capable of such a thing, we just are more accustomed to using brooms,” Diana said. 

“Oh, that makes sense,” Amanda said. 

“Mr. Clive is clearly up to something,” Akko said. 

“For sure, do you think so too, Professor?” Diana asked her. 

“For his assistant to come all the way here just for you guys, that’s certainly suspicious,” Professor Ursula said. 

“I haven’t seen much of Arshand, but he seems suspicious too,” Croix said. 

“If I can say something,” Jessica tried. 

They turned to her. 

“Go ahead Ms. Liu,” Professor Ursula said. 

“I felt Rathika’s aura, but when Diana and Akko cast  **Luna Lana** together, it most definitely overpowered her’s, I’m sure other students felt it too, they were all staring, you two have a very commanding presence,” Jessica said. 

“Yeah, you two attract attention from like all the other students, it’s kind of frightening,” Amanda said. 

“I’m used to it, I’ve been getting that kind of attention all my life, I’m not sure about Akko though,” Diana said. 

“It’s fine, but it does get tiring, I don’t know how you handle all of that,” Akko said. 

“Well, I’m  _ the  _ Diana Cavendish, aren’t I?” she asked. 

“A name that certainly warrants respect, however, that earlier action was out of line,” Professor Finnelan chimed. 

“Cut her some slack, she can’t be expected to be perfect all the time,” Akko said. 

“ _ You’re  _ the reason, Ms. Kagari, you’ve rubbed off on her in the wrong way,” Professor Finnelan said. 

Diana was about to defend her, but Professor Ursula beat her to it. 

“I personally don’t think that’s the case, Ms. Cavendish no longer seems to look stoic and cold towards others, this is most likely due to Ms. Kagari’s influence, and Ms. Kagari is also doing better in her classes, what do you think that could be contributed to?” Professor Ursula said. 

“Ursula, why do you always think the best of people?” Professor Finnelan asked. 

“Because I want to think that people have the capacity to change,” Professor Ursula said. 

“You’re much too kind for your own good,” Professor Finnelan said. 

“I guess I’m like Ms. Cavendish in that regard, I choose to believe that people are inherently good inside, while you seem to see the worst,” Professor Ursula said. 

Professor Finnelan just stood in shock with her jaw dropped, she couldn’t believe what she just heard her co-worker say. Did Professor Ursula really think that Professor Finnelan saw the worst in people first? 

“Did you just call out your former professor?” Croix asked. 

“I stand on the same level as her now, I’m a professor too,” Professor Ursula said. 

“That takes some big guts, Professor, I commend you,” Amanda said. 

“Thank you, Ms. O’Neill, now I must be going, if you’ll excuse me,” Professor Ursula said. 

Professor Ursula left the ballroom to return back to her own room. 

“Well, then I should be heading back to the ministry now, they’re going to kill me if I extend my stay too late,” Croix said, before she also left. 

The remaining students also thought it would be a good idea to go back to their dorms, so that’s what they did. Professor Finnelan cast a quick spell to clean up the mess and then left as well. It was a long night and they were all out by the moment their heads hit their pillows. 


	16. Thanksgiving With The Clive's

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is longer than the normal length that I write, but I really wanted to do more with Mr. Clive, so here it is. 
> 
> Italics represent memories Mr. Clive is having, aka. his thoughts, just wanted to clarify. He's having these memories when baking dessert, I wanted to have an interupption to break it up a little bit since not all the text of his memories are italicized, only when he speaks to Julia.

It’s been a few weeks since Mr. Clive’s assistant Rathika crashed Luna Nova’s Halloween Dance, which means it’s time for Madison to go back to his family’s estate for Thanksgiving. Madison was never fond of tradition, but this is one he keeps to, making dessert for the annual Clive Thanksgiving get together. He had the day off and the enterprise was to be closed tomorrow and Friday in observance of the holiday, so it was ample enough time for him to get ingredients and make the desert. He decided he wanted to make three different things, enough to satisfy the family, cookies, cheesecake, and a Clive specialty, pumpkin pie. Madison made it every year and without fail everyone loves it. He grabbed his ingredients and a bowl and started mixing. He remembered back to a simpler time when he didn’t have to worry about the company and could just be himself. He loved spending time in the kitchen and cooking and baking with his parents. He was even close with a certain Julia Wellard back in the day, she went to Luna Nova and he went to Star del Sol, which was the wizard equivalent of Luna Nova, they met one day walking through the woods, stumbling upon the Soulmate Tree. 

_“Woah! The Soulmate Tree, I never thought I’d see it in person,”_ Madison said in awe. 

_“Me too,”_ an unknown voice said to him. 

_“Who are you?”_ Madison asked. 

_“Julia Wellard, second-year, Luna Nova, and you are?”_ she asked. 

_“Madison Clive, second-year, Star del Sol,”_ he said. 

He looked down at his brightly glowing necklace which is shaped like half a pie tin. It was plain, sure, but he thought it fit him and his love of culinary arts. 

_“Nice to meet you, Madison. I think I’ve heard that family name before, you guys are really influential, right?”_ Julia asked. 

_“Yes, extremely,”_ Madison responded simply. 

Julia looked down at her brightly glowing necklace, also shaped like half a pie tin. She looked up and saw Madison’s which looked like an exact reflection of hers, but she felt nothing except platonic love for the young man standing in front of her, she heard that when you see your soulmate, your heart beats out of your chest, but Julia didn’t feel that way at all. It was different for Madison, however, when he looked at Julia he felt his heart race faster than ever. 

_“What do you like to do in your free time?”_ Julia asked to try and strike a conversation. 

_“I like to cook and bake, how about you?”_ Madison asked. 

_“Really? I like to cook and bake as well, although, I’m not particularly great at it. I love to paint and draw too, using magic, of course,”_ Julia said. 

_“Of course, you go to Luna Nova, so you’re a witch, it only makes sense,”_ Madison said. 

_“And so go to Star del Sol, so you’re a wizard unless I’m mistaken,”_ Julia said. 

_“Yes, I am. Somehow, I feel a type of connection towards you, even though we just met, is that weird?”_ Madison asked. 

_“No, not at all, you seem like a very nice guy,”_ Julia said. 

_“Do you want to, perhaps, cook with me sometime?”_ Madison asked with a blush. 

_“Sure, just tell me when,”_ Julia said. 

_“Okay, meet me here tomorrow,”_ Madison said. 

_“Will do, see you, Madison,”_ Julia said. 

Julia walked away and left Madison to look at the tree, this is where he saw the names of the two people he came to hate the most, Arthur Reinhardt and Bernadette Cavendish. He didn’t have a problem in the beginning so he just walked back his own way, thinking about Julia, her face was prevalent in his mind. Suddenly, Madison heard his doorbell ring and realized what he was doing, knocking him out of the past. He put down his mixing bowl, washed his hands, and answered the door. It was a delivery man holding a package. 

“I have a delivery for a Mr. Madison Clive?” The man asked. 

He took the box out of the man’s hands. 

“Yes, that’s me,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Just sign here,” the man said, extending a tablet with a white screen and a pen for him to sign for the package. 

He signed and the man nodded and wished him a good day before leaving. He closed the door and went back to the kitchen and attended to his mixing bowl, mixing the cookie dough together before transferring it to some plastic wrap, wrapping it, and putting it in the fridge. He started working on the pie and remembered one of the first times he made it, his parents taught the recipe to him and he made it with Julia. 

_“You want to make a pie?”_ Julia asked. 

_“Yeah, it’s the Clive’s family recipe, our famous pumpkin pie,”_ Madison said. 

_“Really? If that’s the case, I would love to make it with you,”_ Julia said. 

_“Okay, first you need to make the pie dough,”_ Madison said. 

They mixed together the ingredients into a dough and kneaded it together, Julia’s hands nudged Madison’s, Julia thought nothing of it, but Madison blushed as the simple touch sent a shock through his system. He spread the dough out in the tin and prepared the filling, as he was mixing he lifted the whisk and splashed a little on his face, Julia wiped it off his face with her thumb and ate it, that made Madison freeze and blush furiously. 

_“Delicious,”_ Julia said. 

_“Glad you like it,”_ Madison said with a soft smile. 

They put the filling in the tin and baked it. They cut a slice and Julia fed Madison, just like they were a couple of some sorts, but that wasn’t the case. Madison shook his head to rid the memory. 

“Why am I thinking about this? I should be over this by now,” Mr. Clive said, shaking his head. 

He finished making the pie and went to make the cheesecake after he finished making all three things, he put the pie and cheesecake in the fridge and left the cookies out covered with foil. He walked into his room, changed, and got into bed, thinking that having a good night’s sleep would rid him of his thoughts, but no, that just made it worse. 

_“We’re soulmates, do you not know?”_ Madison asked. 

_“I’m aware,”_ Julia said. 

_“Then why didn’t we link our necklaces in the beginning?”_ Madison asked. 

_“I’m sorry, I just don’t feel anything for you, I don’t know why, don’t get me wrong, you’re a really nice guy and all but I just don’t like you like that,”_ Julia said. 

_“I don’t get it, why is it that I’m the only one who feels something here?”_ Madison asked. 

_“I don’t know,”_ Julia admitted. 

_“Is there someone else?”_ Madison asked. 

_“Actually, there’s this other witch at Luna Nova,”_ Julia said slowly. 

_“WHAT!? How could you? I thought you liked me the same way I liked you. First, you tell me you don’t and now you tell me you like a witch at Luna Nova?!”_ Madison cried out. 

_“I’m sorry Madison, I only ever thought of you as a friend,”_ Julia said. 

_“Who? Who do you actually like?”_ Madison asked. 

_“Laurel Reinhardt,”_ Julia said. 

_“The Reinhardt’s aren’t even known as magic-users, why?”_ Madison asked. 

_“For your information, The Reinhardts may not all be magic users, but Laurel is a really good witch, and I really don’t know, she just sees me at a different level than everyone else,”_ Julia said. 

_“I don’t believe you! Say you don’t love me,”_ Madison said. 

_“I don’t love you,”_ Julia said, matter of factly, enunciating every word. 

Madison jolted awake, sweat dripping down from his face, he can’t seem to rid his mind of thoughts of Julia. 

_“I don’t love you,”_

_“I don’t love you,”_

_“I don’t love you,”_

Her words rang through Madison’s mind and ears. Those four words left Madison speechless, frozen, and brokenhearted. He felt his heart break into a million pieces at the words Julia said all those years ago. He looked over at the clock on his nightstand, reading 9:00, he got up and decided to take a shower, feeling the warm water run down his body, he rid his thoughts of his late soulmate and steadied himself, he had to meet his family and he had to show them he wasn’t weak-willed. He stepped out of the shower, dried himself off with his expensive cotton towel, and put on some corduroy slacks and a navy button-down shirt. He grabbed his stuff from the kitchen and headed out. He loaded the food into his car and drove to the Clive estate. Once he got there he was greeted by the guard. 

“Madison, is that you?” the guard, William, asked.

“Yes, it is me,” he replied. 

He put his big arms around Madison and trapped him in a bear hug. 

“I haven’t seen you in forever,” William said. 

“Yes, yes, William, I missed you too,” Madison said. 

William let go of Madison and he told him to get the food out of the car, which he happily did. Madison walked into the house and William followed behind, they stopped at the kitchen where William put the food down and left Madison to greet his family. 

“Hello, everyone,” Madison greeted. 

They all turned to look at him. 

“Madison, how are you doing son?” his dad Matthew asked. 

“Is the company running well?” his mom Katherine asked. 

“Did you make this yourself?” his uncle Derek asked, pointing to the food on the table. 

“I hope you’re not overworking yourself,” his aunt Michelle said worriedly. 

“Uncle Maddy, you’re here,” his niece Mary said excitedly. 

He picked Mary up, twirled her around, and put her back down before answering the rest of his family. 

“Yes, I’m doing well, father, yes, the company is doing great, mother, yes I made the desert myself, like I always do for thanksgiving, uncle Derek, and don’t worry aunt Michelle, I’m not overworking myself,” Madison answered. 

“Good to hear it,” Matthew said. 

“Yes, it’s really nice to see you after, how long has it been? Oh, yeah, a year,” Katherine said angrily, pinching Madison’s cheeks. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Madison apologized. 

“It’s okay, I know you’re focusing on the company,” Katherine said. 

“Do you want to do the honors of putting the turkey in the oven?” Matthew asked. 

“Sure, let’s do it together,” Madison said. 

They both each lifted one side of the tin and slid the turkey into the oven. 

“Now we wait, so who’s the Chavla that you’ve hired to work for you?” Matthew asked. 

“Rathika,” Madison said. 

“Ah, the one ranked below you, I see,” Matthew said. 

“Yes, Rathika is rank nine and I’m rank eight,” Madison said.

“As expected of the head of the Clive family,” Matthew replied. 

“Just doing my best to make you proud, father,” Madison said. 

“You’ve made me very proud already,” Matthew said. 

“You’ve made me proud too, don’t forget that, you hear?” Katherine asked. 

“Yes, I hear you loud and clear,” Madison said. 

“Good,” Katherine said. 

“I have a question for you, father,” Madison said.  
“What is it?” Matthew asked. 

Madison played through his memories of Julia, recalling the name of the person she truly loved, he couldn’t help but ask, why?

“Who’s Laurel Reinhardt?” Madison asked. 

“I don’t know much about her, but she’s Arthur Reinhardt’s sister if that’s anything. Maybe you should visit them someday, I know the Reinhardt’s did a terrible thing to us in the past, but it’s better to move on and put that behind us instead of dwelling on the past,” Matthew said. 

“You want me to visit the family that beat us?” Madison asked skeptically with a raised eyebrow. 

“If you’re not comfortable with visiting the Reinhardt’s, maybe you can visit the family closest to them instead,” Matthew said. 

“You’re saying to visit the Cavendish’s?” Madison asked. 

“Who else would I be talking about, I’m sure someone on the inside would know more, am I wrong?” Matthew asked. 

He recalled using Jordan as someone on the inside at Luna Nova. 

“No, you’re correct, I think I might visit them during winter break,” Madison said. 

“That’s the spirit, moving in the right direction,” Matthew said. 

The oven ringed, signaling the turkey was ready. Matthew grabbed some oven mitts, slid them over his hands, opened the oven, and took out the turkey. It was perfectly cooked with some of its juices spilling out onto the tin. He placed it onto some mats which his wife put on the table. 

“It looks great,” Madison’s younger brother Isaiah said. 

Isaiah’s daughter, Mary, walked up to him and clung to his legs. 

“Are you okay?” Isaiah asked her. 

“Where’s mom?” Mary asked. 

Just as she asked this, her mom, and Madison’s sister-in-law, Abbie Weston, now Clive as she married Isaiah a couple of years ago, walked into the kitchen. Mary unclung herself from Isaiah and ran up to her. 

“Mommy!” Mary cried with joy. 

“Hello, my little sweetie pie, how are you?” Abbie asked. 

“I’m good, dinner’s wedy,” Mary said, misspeaking the word ready. 

“Do you mean ready?” Abbie asked. 

“Yeah,” Mary said, nodding violently in affirmation. 

“Okay, okay, let’s eat then,” Abbie said. 

Abbie picked up Mary and walked to the table, where she sat next to Isaiah and put Mary in her lap, so she could see over the table. 

“So who’s going to cut the turkey?” Matthew asked. 

“I’ll do it,” Derek said, raising his hand. 

“Okay, then, the honor’s all yours, brother,” Matthew said. 

Derek grabbed the fork and knife and cut into the turkey, putting the pieces on plates so everyone could have some. It was a big turkey for a big family, Madison, his parents, his aunt and uncle, his brother and sister-in-law, his niece, and some of his cousins, not the whole family, but they never have the _whole_ family over for Thanksgiving, that’s for Christmas. They ate their food and conversed amongst themselves. 

“Clive Enterprises is doing well, I saw their stock, it was rising,” Derek said. 

“Yes, everything is well, just like I said earlier,” Madison said. 

“It’s good that you took on the legacy, I don’t think I could handle it,” Isaiah said. 

“Well, I am the eldest sibling, it was my obligation to take over,” Madison said, shoving a piece of turkey into his mouth. 

Matthew swallowed his piece and opened his mouth to talk. 

“So what about your other employees? I’ve heard some of them are from the Six Great Houses,” 

“Yes, I have a Fei and a Pavlova working for me, additional to Rathika,” Madison said. 

“Good for you, son, you’ve surely made a name for yourself,” Matthew said. 

“Just carrying on the Clive family legacy,” Madison said.

“But you’ve become someone way more worthy of the family name, you’re strong and powerful, an amazing leader I’ve raised,” Matthew said. 

“Thank you, father, now let’s finish eating so we can share the tremendous desserts I’ve made,” Madison said. 

“I can’t say no to that,” Matthew said. 

They finished eating the nice dinner and cleaned up. Madison uncovered the cookies and cut up the pie and cheesecake for his family. 

“Ah, our family pumpkin pie, you always make it, you sure love it, don’t you Madison?” Derek asked. 

“Yes, it’s my favorite recipe to make,” Madison said, eating a piece of his slice. 

Madison closed his eyes and relished in the sweet taste but also remembered back to when he made it with Julia and then when they met for the last time at The Soulmate Tree, where she said those four heartbreaking words. 

_“I don’t love you,”_

_“I don’t love you,”_

_“I don’t love you,”_

Her words kept ringing in his ears, he thought that she loved him, but she didn’t, that was the first and last time he truly let someone into his life. He vowed to never forgive her, he let vengeance cloud his judgment. To be honest, he never _wanted_ to hurt her, but you know what they say, ‘love hurts’ and that sentiment was definitely _not_ lost on Madison. To love someone who will never love you back, it’s stupid, he knew, and what was more stupid was letting that get to him, drive him to the point of murder, yet he felt no remorse and that’s what hurt him more. 

“I’m so stupid,” Madison murmured, tears welling up in his eyes.

Mary saw him and decided to ask, 

“Uncle Maddy, are you okay? You’re crying and you’re not stupid, you’re amazing,” Mary said, patting his head. 

He looked up and saw her worried expression. He rubbed his eyes and wiped the tears streaming down his face. 

“I’m okay, Mary, thank you, do you like my desert?” Madison asked. 

“Yes, it’s very good,” Mary said, scooping another piece of pie into her mouth. 

“I’m glad,” Madison said, with a soft smile. 

Mary smiled, finished eating her slice, and walked over to the trash to throw her plate away. She washed her hands and went to sit down on the couch with her parents. 

“We’re going to watch a movie, want to join us?” Isaiah called from the couch. 

Madison was rarely ever uncertain, but something about this made him feel confused, this is the first time in a while that he felt genuinely welcome and he would threaten to say, loved. The only other person, besides his family, that made him feel like that was Julia, but that was all a façade, at least this was real. Madison nodded, finished his pie, threw his plate away, washed his hands, and went over to join his family on the couch. They watched the movie in peace and quiet, Madison welcomed the silence and paid full attention to the movie, it allowed him to clear his mind of other thoughts. They finished the movie and it was late, so they allowed Madison to have a guest room. He gladly took it and slept the night away, with no such thoughts as yesterday. He woke up early and left the estate, without alarming or waking any of the family members. He went back to his house and spent the weekend there before ultimately returning to work on Monday, he had to return to his normal cycle after all. 

  
  
  
  
  
  



	17. The Cavendish's With The Clive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first of two chapters I wrote for this week, which is, Dianakko week! Made to fit day 2, cuddling/hand-holding.

Diana was in her dorm studying like she always does when she’s alone, she prides herself on staying ahead of the curve, so in the rare case she has to leave on short notice or gets sick, she has something to lean back on. She stopped looking at her book to write in her diary. 

_ December 24th,  _

_ Dear Diary, Christmas is tomorrow, I’m really looking forward to it this year, for some reason, maybe it’s because I get to spend it with Akko, it’s the first time that I actually feel happy celebrating it, most years it’s a terrible reminder for me, the day my dad left and never came back, but at the same time, it was the one day of the year that I got to spend with both of my parents when they were alive. Everytime I look at her face it’s a reminder that I do have someone who I can rely on, she’s like the warmth I haven’t felt since they died, her smile that feels like the sun shining down on me, her bright crimson eyes filled with joy, enthusiasm, and determination to do better. The way she cares for everyone and everything, I really love her and not just because she’s my soulmate. She looked at me with so much intensity and passion but also gentleness and oh so much love and care that day in her room, god her gaze, just that can have the capacity to turn me on.  _

_ “What the heck, Diana? What are you thinking? You need to stop,”  _ Diana thought, smacking her cheeks with her palms. 

Hannah walked into the room and saw her teammate in this position. 

“Hey, Diana, are you okay?” Hannah asked. 

Hannah’s sudden comment startled Diana and she jumped, falling out of her chair. She got up and slammed her diary closed, out of fear that Hannah might’ve seen what she wrote. Hannah looked at her with a confused expression and Diana breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Yeah, I’m okay, do you need something, Hannah?” Diana asked. 

“No, you just looked kind of weird, did something happen?” Hannah asked. 

She remembered what she wrote about her soulmate in her diary and felt her cheeks redden. She started stumbling over her words. 

_ “Oh, come on, get a grip,”  _ Diana thought. 

She was about to answer Hannah, but luckily, her phone rang, saving her from a slightly embarrassing explanation. She answered it not knowing who was on the other side and was surprised to hear her aunt’s voice. 

“Hello, Diana,” Daryl said. 

“Aunt Daryl, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Diana asked, trying to keep the evident disdain out of her voice. 

“You’re on your winter break right?” Daryl asked. 

“Yes, what do you want?” Diana asked. 

“I want you to come back to the estate, we have a special guest,” Daryl said. 

“Who is it?” Diana asked. 

“I’m sure you know him, Madison Clive,” Daryl said. 

“Madison Clive? Why did he come to  _ our  _ estate?” Diana asked. 

“It seems he wants to know more about the family,” Daryl said. 

“Really? I’ll come over, I’m sure he would want to talk to me,” Diana said. 

“ _ He’s  _ the one who told me to call you to come,” Daryl said. 

“Okay, aunt Daryl, see you soon,” Diana said. 

She hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket.

“Was that your aunt?” Hannah asked. 

“Yes, it was, she wants me to return to the estate,” Diana said. 

“WHAT!?” Hannah practically screamed. 

“Hannah, please keep your voice down,” Diana said. 

“Sorry, but do you remember the last time you went back there?” Hannah asked, in a lower voice. 

“Yeah, but I don’t think she has any ill intentions this time, she wants me to meet Madison Clive, or more so,  _ he _ wants me to meet him,” Diana said. 

“The CEO of Clive Enterprises, wants to meet with  _ you _ ?” Hannah asked skeptically. 

“Apparently, I don’t have any clue why,” Diana replied. 

“Huh, weird,” Hannah said. 

“Wouldn’t you rather spend time with Amanda?” Diana asked. 

“I was  _ just  _ with her, I need a break sometimes, it’s not like you spend every waking second with Akko,” Hannah shot back. 

“You have a point, should I invite her to come with me?” Diana asked. 

“That’s your own call, I can’t make that decision for you,” Hannah said. 

Diana plainly nodded and left the room, she decided to go and ask her soulmate if she wanted to come with her. She knocked on the door and Akko answered. 

“Hey, Diana, do you need something?” Akko asked. 

“Do you want to come to my estate with me?” Diana asked. 

“Sure, but why? Is your terrible aunt threatening you? If she is I swear I will give her a piece of my mind,” Akko said, balling her fist and punching upwards. 

“As much as I’m glad you would go to that length for me, it’s nothing of the sort, Madison Clive is at the estate and he wants me to meet him,” Diana said. 

“If that’s the case, of course, I go with you, I’ve been wanting to see that guy ever since he invaded my thoughts, one condition though,” Akko said, holding a finger up. 

“And what is that?” Diana asked. 

“We’re using  _ my  _ broom and you’re going to sit  _ behind  _ me,” Akko declared. 

“Are you sure you can handle that?” Diana teased. 

Akko didn’t get her implication so she took her seriously. 

“Don’t worry, I’ve gotten better, I think I can maintain a proper flying height, at least to fly to your estate,” Akko said. 

“If you say you can do it, I trust you, lead the way,” Diana said. 

Akko told her roommates that she was leaving and walked out the door shutting it behind her. She grabbed Diana’s hand and led her to the broom shed, where she grabbed her broom which had a red ribbon around the brush, given every witch’s broom had the ribbon of their team color on it. They both mounted it with Akko in front and Diana behind her. 

**“Tia Freyre,”** Akko cast. 

The broom started hovering and Diana grabbed Akko’s waist as support. Akko felt the movement and smiled as they flew off. Sometime along their journey, Diana decided to lean her head on Akko’s shoulder and hug her tighter, she felt comfort in it. 

“Is everything okay?” Akko asked. 

Diana just hummed in response as affirmation, she cuddled up against her on the broom and they rode in comfortable silence. They saw the estate in view and landed down in the yard. They got off the broom and walked into the house hand in hand. Daryl saw the both of them together and gave Akko a look of pure disgust. 

“You invited  _ her _ , Diana?” Daryl asked. 

“Yes, is there a problem, aunt Daryl?” Diana asked. 

Daryl absolutely despised Akko, but she had to put up with it, especially because of the Cavendish’s principle of kindness and hospitality. 

“No, no problem at all,” Daryl said, with a clear fake smile. 

“Good, now where is Mr. Clive?” Diana asked. 

Just as she asked this question, Mr. Clive walked up to them. 

“Why hello, Ms. Cavendish and Ms. Kagari, too, what a surprise,” Mr. Clive said, bowing his head, acknowledging them. 

Akko took a good look at Mr. Clive, he was tall at around 6’3, had black hair and green eyes, a small stubble on his chin, and a pretty strong build, no protruding muscles or anything but strong enough to hold himself in a fight. He was also wearing formal work attire with black suit pants, vest, and tie and a white button-down shirt. 

“You don’t look nearly as intimidating in person,” Akko commented. 

“I agree, you don’t look anything like how they advertise you,” Diana said. 

“Thank you, all the news outlets paint me in a bad light,” Mr. Clive said. 

He wanted to add,  _ “It’s nice that you don’t see me as an inherently bad person,”  _ but refrained. 

“So, what is it that you wanted to ask?” Diana asked. 

“Your parents, your aunt already told me about your mother, but I’m more interested in knowing more about your father,” Mr. Clive cut to the chase. 

“I never knew much about my father, Arthur Reinhardt, he was the heir to the Reinhardt family, son of the current head Ulfric Reinhardt, lost his life searching for Elixir of Life to cure my mother, he has a younger sister, Laurel, who automatically became the next in line, but since the Reinhardt’s are a patriarchal family, the position will go to his son Daniel, my cousin. I rarely saw my father due to him going on many missions for his family, but when he was here, he always showered me with love and affection, he was a great father and husband,” Diana recalled. 

“I’m guessing you don’t know much about Laurel either, then,” Mr. Clive said, dejectedly. 

“I’m afraid not, I heard she was a former student at Luna Nova and close with Professor Wellard, but I can no longer ask Professor Wellard and have no time to go to the Reinhardt estate myself, I apologize if that’s not what you wanted to hear,” Diana said. 

“No, it’s okay, how about I teach you how to make some sweets, it’s the least I can do to repay your hospitality,” Mr. Clive said. 

_ “And to have an illusion of trust, this is all a cover anyway,”  _ Mr. Clive thought. 

“Can you teach us how to make apple tarts?” Akko asked, recalling that apple tarts were one of Diana’s favorite foods. 

“Apple tarts? Sure, Ms. Kagari, I’ll be happy to teach you how to make apple tarts,” Mr. Clive said. 

Diana blushed at Akko asking Mr. Clive to make apple tarts. 

_ “She remembered how much I like apple tarts, that’s sweet,”  _ Diana thought. 

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to trouble you,” Diana said. 

“It’s no trouble at all Ms. Cavendish, it’s the least I can do for the two soulmates standing in front of me,” Mr. Clive said, looking down at their interlocked hands. 

Diana and Akko were still holding hands, the whole time Diana was conversing with Mr. Clive they were holding hands and somehow neither of them noticed or they did, but didn’t care. It’s definitely the latter as Diana noticed Mr. Clive looking at them and smirked. It was her way of sticking it to her aunt. She knows that Daryl hates Akko, so showing this display of affection right in front of her would for sure piss her off. She could tell by the way Daryl grimaced and squirmed, trying to keep up a cover. She also threw a stink eye when Mr. Clive mentioned they were soulmates. They just ignored her and walked into the kitchen, surprisingly, they had all the ingredients already in the house. Diana guessed Anna and the other caretakers of the house kept the pantry stocked. Mr. Clive took out the ingredients and started giving instructions to the both of them on how to make apple tarts, per Akko’s request. They put the tart in the oven and Akko felt accomplished, wiping the sweat off her head with the back of her flour-covered hands. 

“Now I know how to make them, thanks Mr. Clive,” Akko said. 

“You're welcome, you can make them for your soulmate now,” Mr. Clive said. 

Akko blushed at the comment, her and Diana were no longer holding hands, but they stared into each other’s eyes, light blue meeting bright crimson, both filled with longing and desire. The oven dinged and tore their attention away from each other. Mr. Clive took the tart out of the oven and put it onto a mat that was set on the table. They let it cool down before all grabbing forks and digging into it. Akko moaned with delight at her creation. Diana felt her heart rate quicken and her cheeks redden. 

_ “God damn it, why? It’s just an innocent moan, bloody hell,”  _ Diana cursed herself in her head. 

Mr. Clive saw this and decided to tease a little bit. 

“I see, you like it, Ms. Kagari,” 

“Yeah, It’s great,” Akko said. 

“I’m glad you like it, what about you Ms. Cavendish?” Mr. Clive asked. 

Diana was trying to calm herself down, but she managed to answer Mr. Clive with the same sentiment as Akko. 

“I should leave you alone then,” Mr. Clive whispered to Diana before leaving the kitchen. 

_ “Damn it, Mr. Clive, you’re so mysterious and elusive, I can’t seem to get a read on you,”  _ Diana thought. 

Diana was eating another piece of the tart when Akko asked, 

“Can I sleep with you?” 

Diana blushed and suddenly started choking on the piece of tart, she punched her chest with the side of her fist and thankfully, swallowed it. 

“W-what?” Diana stuttered. 

Akko realized the implications of what she just said and blushed. 

“No, I didn’t mean like  _ that _ , unless you want it to be like _ that _ , not that I would mind that because you’re so beautiful and I would love to have a repeat of that night,” Akko rambled, flailing her arms around. 

Diana walked up to her and that effectively shut Akko up. 

“I understand,” Diana said softly. 

Akko nodded and leaned in to kiss her, she tasted the remnants of apple and cinnamon on her lips, it was sweet Akko swiped her tongue across Diana’s lips to taste more of the sweetness. She broke away and they both blushed red. 

“Your lips are sweet,” Akko commented. 

“Yours are too,” Diana said. 

It was late so they were forced to stay the night. They asked Daryl before going to their room, of course, she said it was fine, every though, it was clear by her expression that she wasn’t. They walked into the room and Diana shut the door behind them. She gave Akko a t-shirt and shorts to wear, which she gladly took. They both changed and got into the bed. Akko put her arms around Diana’s waist and Diana reciprocated putting her arms around Akko’s waist, so they ended up cuddling up against each other in their sleep, and it was one of the most comfortable feelings that both of them had ever felt. 


	18. Seeing the Stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second of the two chapters I wrote for this week, which is Dianakko week! Made to fit day 6, the space/stars

Diana and Akko returned to Luna Nova after spending Christmas at the Cavendish estate. It was now New Year’s Eve and after curfew when Akko decided to go to the New Moon Tower. She walked out onto the platform and laid down on the edge with her legs dangling off it. She looked up to the sky at the bright stars, Horologium being the most prominent constellation, she extended her hand up to trace it with her fingers. She loved looking at the stars at night, she even knows her own alignment, she might not know her future for sure, but her alignment in the stars can give a pretty accurate reading, even if it’s more vague, like going to college and marrying her soulmate. She also saw Aries and traced the shape that the stars in the night sky formed. She saw other constellations and pointed to and traced them as well. She looked at the stars in silence for a while before, 

_ “BANG,”  _

The sound of fireworks started, illuminating the sky with bright colors. Akko looked in amazement at how the fireworks seemed to blend well with the night sky and stars. She sat up on the platform and looked to the distance where the fireworks were coming from, someone was shooting them from Blytonbury. 

“Wow! I can see the fireworks from this far?” Akko questioned herself in astonishment. 

She just looked at the pretty colors and reveled in the sound, which drowned out her thoughts. 

“I wish Diana was here to see this,” Akko said. 

When she said this, however, she saw the silhouette of a witch flying on a broom, with wavy locks blowing in the wind, it looked eerily like the person Akko wanted to see. She looked majestic hovering in front of the fireworks and under the night sky. She moved closer to the platform and Akko could now clearly see platinum blonde and tea green hair and light blue eyes staring into her crimson ones. 

“I’m right here, I can see them very clearly. Stargazing past curfew, again?” Diana asked, with a smile. 

“Yeah, please don’t rat me out,” Akko pleaded. 

“Do I have to repeat myself? I  _ did  _ say that I wouldn’t do anything of that sort and besides I’m out past curfew too, aren’t I?” Diana asked. 

“I guess so, come on, sit beside me,” Akko said, patting the empty spot next to her on the platform. 

Diana did just that and sat beside her on the platform, leaning her head against Akko’s shoulder as they watched the fireworks and looked at the stars. 

“Is that the Aries constellation?” Diana asked, pointing to it. 

Akko looked to where she was pointing. 

“Yep, that’s the one,” Akko said, beaming with a smile. 

“Have I told you how much I love your smile?” Diana asked. 

“Once or twice,” Akko said. 

Akko leaned her head against Diana’s as they watched the display in comfortable silence. They used their minds to talk instead. 

_ “It’s really beautiful,”  _ Akko said. 

_ “What is?”  _ Diana asked. 

_ “Gah, I forgot we can do this,”  _ Akko said, startled. 

_ “You never answered my question,”  _ Diana said. 

_ “Oh, the fireworks, the stars, you,”  _ Akko said, thinking that Diana couldn’t hear the last part. 

_ “I can hear you, did you forget?”  _ Diana asked. 

_ “Oh, right, I really do mean it though,”  _ Akko said, feeling her cheeks heat up. 

_ “I know,”  _ Diana said simply. 

_ “I want you to know that I love you more than anything,”  _ Akko confessed. 

_ “I love you too,”  _ Diana admitted. 

_ “Why were you out flying so late?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “Headmistress Holbrooke tasked me with checking the campus for students who stay out after hours. I was supposed to be back in my dorm by now, but here I am, so technically, now I’m breaking curfew as well,”  _ Diana said. 

_ “I’m sorry,”  _ Akko apologized. 

_ “You don’t need to apologize, I did this because I wanted to, I want to be next to you, your presence is nice, like a ray of sunshine in my usually dull life,”  _ Diana said. 

_ “Aww! Thanks. I’m happy that you think of me as the one who brings light to your life,”  _ Akko said. 

_ “It’s true, ever since you transferred to Luna Nova, there’s never been a dull moment,”  _ Diana said. 

_ “I sure threw a wrench into the whole atmosphere here, didn’t I?”  _ Akko asked. 

_ “I can’t say that you didn’t, everything changed after you moved here, it’s a welcome change, however, _ ” Diana said. 

_ “Tradition was never my style, I like to think Luna Nova needed me to change its olden views,”  _ Akko said. 

_ “I’m not sure about Luna Nova as a whole, but I can say for me that I certainly need you,”  _ Diana said, intertwining her fingers with Akko’s. 

Akko didn’t say anything but lifted her head, blushed, and nodded as to share the same sentiment. She laid back down onto the platform, forcing Diana to move her head, but she also did the same. They stared up at the sky and looked at the bright stars and the colors from the fireworks. They found peace in the atmosphere they’re in, the noise of the fireworks, the proximity of their bodies to each other, and the bright starry night sky above them. 

“I like this, it’s peaceful and serene,” Diana said. 

Akko hummed in response as affirmation. 

“And I like you,” Akko said, turning on her side to look at her. 

Diana also turned to her side, they were now staring at each other. 

“I like you too,” Diana said, touching Akko’s cheek with her palm. 

Akko blushed at the touch and sensation. 

_ “Cute,”  _ Diana thought. 

“Umm…” Akko trailed off, not knowing how to continue the conversation. 

“What is it? Are you okay, love?” Diana asked. 

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just, Mr. Clive, he seemed so nice when we met him, I don’t know what to believe, he doesn’t look like the type to kill someone, but I know I can’t judge a book by its cover,” Akko said. 

“I think he taught us how to make apple tarts to show he isn’t as bad as everyone makes him out to be, but he’s still a very mysterious and elusive man that we don’t know much about, for all we know he could’ve been using that as a cover,” Diana said. 

“That could very well be the case. I have a weird question, do you think that maybe he controlled Jordan’s body?” Akko asked. 

“Anything is possible,” Diana said. 

Akko agreed and just let the subject drop as they got captivated and lost in each other’s eyes. They were so close that their breaths tickled each other’s lips. Suddenly, they heard a countdown, 

“10,” 

“9,” 

“8,” 

“7,” 

“6,” 

“5,” 

“4,” 

“3,” 

“2,” 

“1,” 

“HAPPY NEW YEAR’S!!,” 

They leaned in and kissed each other underneath the night sky and fireworks, but the sound felt like it was drowned out as all they knew was each other. Akko was now on top of Diana and Diana let out a shaky breath. Akko realized where they were and backed away, standing up, giving her space to do the same. 

“Sorry,” Akko apologized again. 

“It’s okay, you don’t need to keep apologizing,” Diana said. 

“Happy New Year’s, Diana,” Akko said, with a wide smile. 

“Happy New Year’s, Akko,” Diana said, also with a smile, albeit a softer one. 

“Anyway, should we get going?” Akko said nervously, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand. 

“Yeah, it’s really late,” Diana said. 

“Do you think we’ll get caught?” Akko asked. 

“You’re scared  _ now _ ? Haven’t you done this before?” Diana asked, furrowing her brow. 

“I mean, yeah, but I was always alone, I didn’t care if  _ I  _ was going to be caught, I’ve been caught before, but I’m worried about  _ you _ ,” Akko said. 

“That’s really sweet, but I know how to get around, and besides, I have an excuse,” Diana said. 

“Oh, right, you were on patrol,” Akko said. 

“Yeah, so you should go, before they get suspicious as to why I was out so late,” Diana said, shooing Akko away. 

Akko took her leave and went back to her dorm, luckily, not being caught. Her teammates were already asleep and suspected nothing. Diana returned her broom to the shed, before returning to her own dorm as well, where she faced a similar situation to Akko, in the fact that no one caught her and her teammates were already asleep. They both released a sigh of relief before both going to bed themselves. 


	19. Julia in the Past and Jordan in the Present

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to see a glimpse into Julia's life in the past and her relationship with Mr. Clive and also Jordan with Akko and Diana in the present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes some dialogue from chapter 16, but further elaborates on it, just warning you now if you don't want to read the same thing twice.

15 years ago, Luna Nova, England 

It was Julia Wellard’s first day as a second-year at Luna Nova, she was on the red team, along with Cami Garcia and Wendy Ellerton. 

“Oh my gosh, Madison Clive is soo cute,” Wendy swooned, looking at Magic-Users Monthly magazine. 

“Who’s he?” Cami asked. 

“Only the top student at Star del Sol,” Wendy said. 

“It says here that he’s also a second-year student,” Cami said pointing to his page in the magazine. 

“That’s nice,” Julia said, zoned out, staring ahead at the one and only Laurel Reinhardt of the blue team. 

Her teammates stopped conversing about the magazine when they felt her presence walking by with her own teammates in tow. 

“Hello, Julia,” Laurel greeted. 

“Hey, Laurel, how are you?” Julia asked. 

“I’m good, how about you?” Laurel asked. 

“I’m good,” Julia replied. 

“Well, see you in class,” Laurel replied, with a smile. 

Laurel walked away and Julia could’ve sworn she felt her heart skip a beat. 

_“She’s so pretty, with her ocean blue eyes and blonde hair, and that smile, oh how I love her smile. No, no, I can’t think like this, she’s from a noble family and I’m just me, not to mention we’re both girls and we’re not even soulmates, the shape is not the same. I’m only supposed to feel like this with my soulmate yet somehow, Laurel,”_ Julia thought, unintentionally saying the last part aloud. 

“So you like Laurel, huh?” Cami teased, elbowing Julia. 

“N-no, I don’t,” Julia stuttered, blushing. 

“Sure you don’t,” Wendy said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. 

“I don’t,” Julia said adamantly. 

“If you say so,” Cami said, shrugging her shoulders. 

“Let’s just go to class,” Julia said. 

Her teammates nodded and they walked to class. They were about to sit down but were stopped by Laurel’s teammates, Bethany Johnson and Faith Lefevre. 

“Don’t you dare try and get close to Laurel,” Bethany said pointing a finger at Julia’s chest. 

“But she was the one who greeted me first,” Julia said with evident confusion in her tone at the statement Bethany said. 

“She’s a Reinhardt, she wouldn’t associate with the likes of _you_ ,” Faith said. 

“I don’t understand, I didn’t do anything,” Julia said. 

“You should keep it that way,” Bethany said. 

Laurel saw this and walked up to them. 

“I apologize, are my teammates bothering you?” Laurel asked Julia. 

“Oh, Laurel, we’re just telling Julia here how great you are,” Faith said. 

“As I recall you were telling me to stay away from her,” Julia said, crossing her arms. 

“Is this true?” Laurel asked her teammates. 

“No! She’s lying,” Bethany said. 

“Cast a truth spell, if you really think I am, lying, that is,” Julia said. 

Even though Laurel trusted Julia enough to know that she wouldn’t lie, she still cast the spell anyway. 

“Did my teammates tell you to stay away from me?” Laurel asked. 

“Yes, and to quote, Bethany, ‘Don’t you try and get close to Laurel’, and Faith, ‘She’s a Reinhardt, she wouldn’t associate with the likes of _you_ ’,” Julia said. 

“Bethany, Faith, what do you have to say for yourselves?” Laurel asked. 

“We’re sorry,” Bethany and Faith apologized in unison. 

“It’s okay,” Julia said. 

“No, it’s not, please tell me if they ever try anything like that again, okay?” Laurel asked. 

“Okay, thanks, Laurel,” Julia said. 

“You’re welcome,” Laurel said. 

“Can you help me study after class?” Julia asked. 

“It’s only the first day and you’re already worried about falling behind?” Laurel asked. 

“You know I’m not the best student, not everyone can be like a member of the Six Great Houses,” Julia said. 

“That doesn’t automatically make me good,” Laurel said. 

“I know, you work just as hard as the rest of us,” Julia said. 

“It’s nice that you acknowledge that, the Reinhardt’s aren’t known magic-users, only a few of us are actually experienced magic-users,” Laurel said. 

“Really? And you’re one of them, right?” Julia asked. 

“I guess so,” Laurel said, shrugging. 

“That’s so cool!,” Julia exclaimed. 

Professor Lukić appeared from the storage closet. 

“Please get seated, so we can get started,” Professor Lukić said. 

They went to sit down and the professor went on with her lesson. 

* * *

It’s now been a few months since Julia started her second-year at Luna Nova. She had won the annual broom relay and was now exploring the woods since it was a day off for her. She stumbled upon The Soulmate Tree and noticed how bright her necklace was glowing, it was shaped like half a pie tin. 

“Woah! The Soulmate Tree, I never thought I’d see it in person,” Julia heard someone say. 

“Me too,” Julia said. 

A young man approached Julia and asked, 

“Who are you?” 

Julia recognized it as the same voice she heard before. 

“Julia Wellard, second-year at Luna Nova, and you are?” She asked. 

“Madison Clive, second-year, Star del Sol,” he said. 

Julia faintly recognized the name, she knew he was from some big-shot family and thought she heard Wendy mention the name once or twice before. 

“Nice to meet you, Madison. I think I’ve heard that family name before, you guys are really influential, right?” Julia asked. 

“Yes, extremely,” Madison responded simply. 

Julia looked down at her necklace again and then back up at Madison, noticing it was the same necklace, she finally found her soulmate, she heard that her heart was supposed to race when she was near her soulmate, but she didn’t feel the same way about Madison as she did about Laurel. Sure he was cute and all, but it just wasn’t the same. 

“What do you like to do in your free time?” Julia asked, trying to strike up a conversation to rid the awkward atmosphere around them. 

“I like to cook and bake,” Madison said. 

“Really? I like to cook and bake as well, although, I’m not particularly great at it. I love to paint and draw too, using magic, of course,” Julia said. 

“Of course, you go to Luna Nova, so you’re a witch, it only makes sense,” Madison said. 

“And so go to Star del Sol, so you’re a wizard unless I’m mistaken,” Julia said. 

“Yes, I am. Somehow, I feel a type of connection towards you, even though we just met, is that weird?” Madison asked. 

“No, not at all, you seem like a very nice guy,” Julia said. 

“Do you want to, perhaps, cook with me sometime?” Madison asked with a blush. 

“Sure, just tell me when,” Julia said. 

“Okay, meet me here tomorrow,” Madison said. 

“Will do, see you, Madison,” Julia said. 

Julia left and went back to campus. She walked into her dorm where she was greeted by her teammates and surprisingly, Laurel. 

“What are you doing here?” Julia asked, referring to Laurel. 

“I was worried about you, so I went to check on you, your teammates told me you went out, so I waited here for you,” Laurel said. 

“Aww! That’s sweet, I just went for a walk in the woods, I saw The Soulmate Tree and met Madison Clive,” Julia said. 

“You met _the_ Madison Clive?” Wendy asked excitedly. 

“Calm down, Wendy,” Cami said. 

Wendy took a deep breath to calm herself, but still looked expectantly at Julia for an explanation. 

“Yeah, I think he’s my soulmate, but somehow, I felt nothing towards him,” Julia said. 

“Madison Clive is your soulmate?” Wendy asked, shocked, and doubtful. 

“I think so, it looked like the same shape,” Julia said. 

“So, how do you feel about him?” Laurel asked. 

“My heart doesn’t race at all, he seems like a nice guy, but I don’t feel any of the traditional feelings you’re supposed to have around your soulmate,” Julia said. 

“But he’s _the_ Madison Clive, how can you not?” Wendy asked. 

_“Because I like Laurel,”_ Julia thought. 

Laurel looked at her with a confused expression. 

_“Oh, god, did I say that out loud?”_ Julia thought. 

“You like me?” Laurel asked. 

“Yeah,” Julia said. 

“No wonder you don’t like your soulmate. When your feelings for someone other than your soulmate are stronger than your feelings for your soulmate, you start to have withdrawal from them,” Laurel explained. 

“So, do you like me back?” Julia asked. 

“I’m sorry, Julia, I’m afraid I don’t like you in that way, I only see you as a friend, I’m really, really, sorry, I know that’s probably not what you wanted to hear,” Laurel said. 

“I understand, please leave now,” Julia said, pointing to the door, tears welling up in her eyes. 

Laurel left the room and Julia immediately collapsed to her knees at the floor, sobbing her eyes out. Her friends both sat down with her and touched her shoulders and rubbed her back to comfort her. Julia wiped her tears away, got up, told her friends not to worry, and went to bed. 

* * *

Julia was back at The Soulmate Tree with Madison, she had to let him down. She liked baking that pie with him a few weeks back, but she couldn’t lead him on any longer. Julia didn’t like Madison and the person she did like rejected her, this was her time to finally let him go. 

“Hey, Madison, how are you?” Julia asked. 

“I get to see you, so I guess I’m doing pretty good,” Madison said. 

“So….” Julia trailed off, not knowing what to say. 

“We’re soulmates, do you not know?” Madison asked. 

“I’m aware,” Julia said. 

“Then why didn’t we link our necklaces in the beginning?” Madison asked. 

“I’m sorry, I just don’t feel anything for you, I don’t know why, don’t get me wrong, you’re a really nice guy and all but I just don’t like you like that,” Julia said. 

“I don’t get it, why is it that I’m the only one who feels something here?” Madison asked. 

“I don’t know,” Julia admitted. 

“Is there someone else?” Madison asked. 

“Actually, there’s this other witch at Luna Nova,” Julia said slowly. 

“WHAT!? How could you? I thought you liked me the same way I liked you. First, you tell me you don’t and now you tell me you like a witch at Luna Nova?!” Madison cried out. 

“I’m sorry Madison, I only ever thought of you as a friend,” Julia said. 

“Who? Who do you actually like?” Madison asked. 

“Laurel Reinhardt,” Julia said. 

“The Reinhardt’s aren’t even known as magic-users, why?” Madison asked. 

“For your information, The Reinhardts may not all be magic users, but Laurel is a really good witch, and I really don’t know, she just sees me at a different level than everyone else,” Julia said. 

“I don’t believe you! Say you don’t love me,” Madison said. 

“I don’t love you,” Julia said, matter of factly, enunciating every word. 

“Why?” Madison asked, voice cracking. 

“I don’t love you, plain as that and besides, Laurel rejected me anyways,” Julia said, shrugging. 

“And you’re okay with that? Madison asked. 

“Yeah, I’m not the type of girl to hold a grudge against someone who doesn’t like me back,” Julia said. 

Madison slapped Julia across the face. 

“I’m going to kill you!” Madison cried out, stomping away with his hands in his hoodie pocket. 

Julia instinctively put her hand to the cheek that Madison slapped. 

_“He must not really mean that, does he?”_ Julia thought, walking back to Luna Nova. 

Little did she know that fifteen years later, he actually went through with that. 

* * *

Present-day, Luna Nova, England

Jordan was in the library looking through old yearbooks and stumbled upon Professor Wellard’s page. She learned that she won the annual broom relay, her second-year, and The Moonlit Witch award her third-year, she also learned that she was on the red team and was close with Laurel Reinhardt. 

“Hey, Jordan,” Akko said. 

Her sudden greeting startled Jordan and she jumped and gripped the yearbook she was holding tighter. 

“Gosh, don’t startle me like that,” Jordan said. 

“Gomen, gomen,” Akko apologized. 

“Huh?” Jordan asked, confused. 

“It means sorry,” Diana said. 

Jordan looked over at her. 

“You’re here too?” Jordan asked. 

“Akko and I are here to study,” Diana said. 

“Of course, it’s a library, that’s what people do when they come to the library,” Jordan said. 

“So are you also studying?” Akko asked. 

“No, I was just looking through old yearbooks,” Jordan said. 

“Which year?” Diana asked. 

“2002,” Jordan said. 

“Isn’t that one of the years Professor Wellard went here?” Diana asked. 

“Yeah, she won the broom relay her second year and The Moonlit Witch award her third year,” Jordan said. 

“Really? That’s cool,” Akko said. 

“She was also close with Laurel Reinhardt,” Jordan said. 

“Yeah, she was close with my aunt,” Diana said. 

“Laurel Reinhardt’s your aunt?” Jordan asked. 

“Yeah, he’s my father’s sister, I would much rather her than aunt Daryl,” Diana said. 

Akko shuddered at the mention of her name. 

“I hate her so much,” Akko said. 

“I’m sure the feeling is mutual,” Diana said. 

“She trapped you in a snake, I think I have a pretty good reason to hate her,” Akko said. 

“Your own aunt trapped you in a snake?” Jordan asked Diana. 

“She did, she wanted to prevent me from completing the ascension ritual to become head of the house,” Diana said. 

“That’s so cruel,” Jordan said. 

“I know, I went and saved her,” Akko said. 

“I saved you after, that was so reckless,” Diana said. 

“I just wanted to help you,” Akko said. 

“Of course, you did, that’s so _you_ ,” Jordan said. 

“What do you mean by that?” Akko asked. 

“You’re so altruistic, you want to help everyone,” Jordan said. 

“Of course, I think everyone’s worth saving,” Akko said. 

“It’s like you’re already part of the family,” Diana said. 

Akko blushed at the comment. 

“Is that a proposal?” Jordan asked. 

“It could be,” Diana said. 

“But we’re only seventeen, it’s too early, not that I wouldn’t want to, because I would love to, of course, I’d say yes, but,” Akko was about to say more but Diana put a finger on her lips. 

“I’m only saying it’s like you’re already part of the family because of your values. Of course, I would love to marry you, but yes I agree it’s too early,” Diana clarified. 

Akko just nodded and Diana removed her finger from Akko’s lips. 

“So, I want to hear your guy’s opinion on something,” Jordan said. 

“What is it?” Akko asked. 

“I’m supposed to meet Madison Clive in a couple of weeks and I really want to go, but I’m not sure if it’s a trap or not,” Jordan said. 

“We met him during winter break and he seemed like a pretty nice guy, he wasn’t nearly as intimidating in person, plus, he taught us how to make apple tarts as a thank you for giving him some information,” Akko told. 

“But that could’ve all been a cover, I’m not completely sure,” Diana said. 

“I guess I’ll find out then, I’ll leave you to your studying now,” Jordan said. 

They both nodded and found another table to sit at where they studied together for a few hours before heading back to their dorms. 


	20. The Day Before

Madison Clive walked into his lair. The chamber he was preparing is finally ready. Today is January 25th, which means Jordan would visit him tomorrow, his trap was set, all he needed to do was wait. He sat at his desk and cleaned up his papers, he condensed all his research to one sheet and no longer needed the others. He threw away the things that were no longer needed, he put away extra prototype wands that were also on his desk and put his potions on his shelf so they won’t get accidentally knocked off. He had nothing else to do so he looked at his phone, where he noticed his profile. 

“Madison Clive, head of the Clive family, CEO of Clive Enterprises in London, England, Birthday: January 26th, Age:32, Ethnicity: British, Rank: 8 out of 124,563,812 current magic users in the world, Soulmate: Julia Wellard, rejected, very fond of cooking/baking and learning new recipes,” Mr. Clive read. 

He walked over to his chamber and tapped on the glass to clear the smoke. The chamber is made to take magic from whoever’s trapped inside, the only reason he’s taking Jordan is to lure the two witches he really wanted to use. 

“It’s perfect,” Rathika commented as she walked in. 

Rathika’s sudden comment startled Madison and he jumped back. 

“Damn it, Rathika, warn me first,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Sorry, the student you’re going to use it on is visiting you tomorrow, right?” Rathika asked. 

“Yes, she is,” Mr. Clive said. 

“What is your true motive with this?” Rathika asked. 

“I’m using Ms. Conners to lure Ms. Cavendish and Ms. Kagari here,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Of course, their connection is stronger than anything else, that’s a lot of magic,” Rathika said. 

“That’s exactly why,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Smart, sir,” Rathika said. 

“I know, it’s a foolproof plan,” Mr. Clive said. 

“What if they’re able to mind link?” Rathika asked. 

“No problem, the cells are too thick to break out of with simple magic,” Mr. Clive said. 

“You’ve really thought about everything,” Rathika said. 

“If there’s one thing I am, it’s prepared, especially after…” Mr. Clive trailed off, looking down pensively. 

“After what, sir?” Rathika asked. 

“Nothing to worry yourself over, Rathika,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Okay, but if you ever need anything, please come to me,” Rathika said. 

“Yes, I know,” Mr. Clive said. 

Rathika was about to walk away when Mr. Clive stopped her. 

“Rathika, wait!” Mr. Clive called. 

“Yes, sir?” Rathika asked. 

“Can you cast seals on the chamber and cells to keep them secure?” Mr. Clive asked. 

“Aren’t you able to do it yourself?” Rathika asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Yes, I’ve already cast some, but I want you to cast some to make it stronger, just in case,” Mr. Clive said. 

“I understand, I’ll be right on it,” Rathika said. 

“Great, thank you,” Mr. Clive said. 

Rathika walked up to the chamber and cast a seal before walking over to the cells and doing the same and then going back to the office. Madison stood by the chamber and stared at it for a moment before returning to the office himself. 

* * *

Jordan looked out her window at the rain pattering against it. It was the day before she was supposed to meet Mr. Clive and it’s raining, just her luck. She enjoyed the sound of the rain pattering against her window as she studied, however, she hoped it would clear up in time for her to meet Mr. Clive. She was taking notes when she heard a knock on her door. She put her pencil in between the pages and closed her notebook before answering the door. She cracked it open and saw red, blue, and green ribbons. She opened the door all the way to be met with The New Nine Witches and Professor Ursula. 

“Why are you here?” Jordan asked. 

“We’re just checking on you, are you sure you want to go to meet Mr. Clive at Clive Enterprises tomorrow?” Akko asked. 

“It’s nice that you’re all worried about me, but it’s misplaced, I want to go,” Jordan said. 

“Just don’t blame us if you get captured by him or something,” Amanda said. 

“Why would I? I’m doing this out of my own accord,” Jordan said. 

“He’s a mysterious and elusive individual, just be careful,” Diana said. 

“I can leave a spirit to watch over you if you want,” Lotte said. 

“I can make you a protection potion,” Sucy said. 

“There’s no need for that,” Jordan said, waving her arms around. 

“If you say so,” Sucy shrugged. 

“We heard that Mr. Clive invaded your thoughts, are you sure you’re okay?” Constanze wrote on her board. 

Jordan looked at it and nodded. 

“Want some snacks?” Jasminka asked, extending a bag towards her. 

“Sure,” Jordan said, taking the bag from Jasminka’s hands. 

The nine witches talked amongst themselves and then seven of them walked away, leaving two in front of Jordan, Professor Ursula whispered something to them before also leaving herself. 

“Why was the Professor here?” Jordan asked. 

“We’ve narrowed down the culprit to someone in the top ten and we have a sneaking suspicion it’s Mr. Clive,” Akko said. 

“Are you talking about Professor Wellard?” Jordan asked. 

“Yeah, duh, who else would we be talking about? She’s the person’s murder we’ve been trying to solve,” Akko said. 

“You think Mr. Clive did it?” Jordan asked. 

“We’re like 93% sure,” Akko said. 

“Why do you think that?” Jordan asked. 

“He invaded all three of our minds, has powerful enough magic to kill someone with one shot of **Murowa** , his assistant crashed our dance, he taught us how to make apple tarts, most likely as a cover, he’s the type of businessman to command and control his employees, make them work for him, he seems to think that the first rule of the business world is ‘be ruthless’ and not ‘work together to make something better’, and he might have an underground lair, but that’s a stretch,” Diana said. 

_“What am I supposed to do now?”_ Jordan thought. 

_“Just go along with it,”_ Mr. Clive chimed. 

_“Can I tell them?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“Go ahead, it doesn’t matter anymore,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“What do you mean by that?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“They already suspect me and you’re still going to see me, right? What are they going to do?”_ Mr. Clive said smugly.

 _“Yes, I am and you’re stupidly overconfident,”_ Jordan said. 

_“How so?”_ Mr. Clive asked in a slightly confused manner. 

_“You severely underestimate what you’re up against,”_ Jordan said. 

_“Oh, I’m completely aware of what I’m up against,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

_“Are you sure?”_ Jordan asked. 

_“Very,”_ Mr. Clive said simply and surely. 

_“See you tomorrow, then,”_ Jordan said. 

_“See you tomorrow,”_ Mr. Clive said. 

Mr. Clive left her thoughts. 

“You’re right,” Jordan said after a pause. 

“We are?” Akko asked, eyebrows furrowed. 

“Yes, Mr. Clive’s the one responsible,” Jordan said. 

“How do you know?” Diana asked. 

“Because he used my body to do it,” Jordan muttered. 

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Akko asked, leaning an ear to hear. 

“I just know, okay!” Jordan cried out. 

“You know that and you’re still going to see him?” Akko asked. 

“Yes, I am, now if you please, I have to finish taking notes for class, I also have another painting to draw for Magical Arts,” Jordan said. 

They both nodded and walked away. Jordan closed the door and went to her desk to finish writing her notes. 

“Who was that?” Rachel asked. 

“I’m assuming that it was Akko, Diana, and their friends, I could feel it,” Jessica said. 

“Yeah, they were just checking on me,” Jordan said, closing her notebook and plopping onto her bed. 

“Really? Whatever for?’ Rachel asked. 

“I’m going to see Mr. Clive tomorrow and they were just worried,” Jordan said. 

“Rightly so, that guy has the power to kill you if he wanted,” Jessica said. 

“He gives me the heebie-jeebies,” Rachel said. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Jordan assured. 

“If you insist,” Jessica said. 

Jordan plainly nodded before lying down on her bed. Jessica turned out the light with her wand and they all went to bed to the sound of rain against their window.


	21. Jordan Meets Madison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jordan finally meets Mr. Clive in-person, but he has different plans.

They were both ready, Jordan had no idea what Mr. Clive had in store for her, but they were ready to meet each other. The sixteen-year-old Jordan Conners stood in front of Clive Enterprises, waiting for the thirty-three-year-old, as of today, Madison Clive to meet her. He stepped out of the building and was now standing in front of the person in question. 

“You’re Jordan Conners?” Mr. Clive asked in a doubtful tone. 

“You’re Madison Clive?” Jordan asked in the same tone. 

“Yes, that’s me, the 6’3, thirty-three-year-old with a stubble,” Mr. Clive laughed. 

“Yes, I’m Jordan, the 5’0, sixteen-year-old with a wand and fondness for painting, but you already knew that,” Jordan said. 

“Would you like a tour of the place?” Mr. Clive asked.

“Sure, can I ask you more questions along the way?” asked. 

“If you want,” Mr. Clive said. 

He gestured his hand for Jordan to enter first. 

“Ladies first,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Such a gentleman,” Jordan said as she entered the building. 

Mr. Clive entered after her and walked slightly ahead of her to guide her through the building and the different departments. 

“How did you know Professor Wellard?” Jordan asked as they walked through the printing room. 

“I met her at The Soulmate Tree one day and we hit it off almost immediately,” Mr. Clive said. 

“You said she broke your heart, how?” Jordan asked. 

“We were soulmates and she rejected me because she loved someone else,” Mr. Clive said nonchalantly, waving it off as not a big deal. 

“Who?” Jordan asked. 

“This might be a shock, prepare yourself,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Okay,” Jordan said slightly confused, dragging out the ‘a’ sound for a few seconds. 

“Laurel Reinhardt,” Mr. Clive said. 

“What?” Jordan asked, surprised. 

“She liked Laurel Reinhardt, but she rejected her as well,” Mr. Clive said. 

“The Six Great Houses are a bunch of work,” Jordan said, exasperated. 

“Are you talking down to the top magic-users in the world?” Mr. Clive asked. 

“No, I’m just saying that they’re complicated,” Jordan said. 

“Isn’t every family to an extent?” Mr. Clive asked. 

“Yes, I guess so,” Jordan said. 

“Besides, I thought you liked Ms. Cavendish, no?” Mr. Clive asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Yeah, she’s really nice,” Jordan said. 

“So by that extension, not everyone in The Six Great Houses are a lot of work, am I wrong?” Mr. Clive asked. 

“No, you are correct,” Jordan confirmed. 

Mr. Clive had nothing else to say so they walked and he pointed out the different places as he guided Jordan through the enterprise. Along the way, they were stopped by Rathika who accidentally bumped into Mr. Clive and dropped all her papers. 

“I’m so sorry, sir,” Rathika said as she bent down to pick up the papers. 

“It’s okay, Rathika,” Mr. Clive said. 

She picked up the papers off the ground and stood up, extending them towards Mr. Clive. 

“This is the paperwork for later,” Rathika whispered. 

“You know where to put it,” Mr. Clive whispered back. 

“Oh right, I’ll get out of your way now,” Rathika bowed before walking away. 

Jordan gave her a stink eye as she did so. 

“Why did she crash our dance?” Jordan asked. 

“She  _ was  _ sent to deal with The New Nine Witches, but she  _ clearly _ didn’t finish the job, she’s still a good employee despite that,” Mr. Clive said. 

“They must be pretty important for you to be so interested in them,” Jordan said. 

“Yes, but it’s more so Ms. Cavendish and Ms. Kagari that I want,” Mr. Clive muttered. 

“What was that?” Jordan asked, leaning an ear towards Mr. Clive. 

“Nothing, let’s keep going,” Mr. Clive said. 

“If you say so,” Jordan said, swaying as she walked with her hands clasped behind her back. 

Mr. Clive actually liked the presence of the shorter girl walking next to her, she reminded him a lot of Julia, save for her eyes, since Julia had hazel ones, but the way she held herself, her affinity for art, her height, and her hair all reminded him of Julia. He felt tears start to well up in his eyes but he fought them back and wiped his eyes with his pointer fingers. Jordan looked up to notice the action. 

“Are you okay?” Jordan asked. 

“Yes, I’m alright, it’s just, you remind me a lot of Julia,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Who’s Julia?” Jordan asked. 

“Julia Wellard, it’s her first name,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Oh,” Jordan said, nodding in understanding. 

“I don’t know what it is, maybe the fact that you kind of look like her or that you like art, it might be a combination of both of those things, but it reminds me of her,” Mr. Clive said. 

“That’s a big compliment, thank you,” Jordan said. 

“You’re welcome,” Mr. Clive replied. 

“What time is it now?” Jordan asked. 

“You don’t have your phone on you or a watch?” Mr. Clive asked flatly. 

Jordan flushed with embarrassment as she reached into her pocket to take out her phone. 

“So much like Julia,” Mr. Clive muttered under his breath. 

“It’s already 18:00?” Jordan asked looking at the time. 

“I guess so, you can get something out of the break room if you’re hungry,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Thanks, I will,” Jordan replied, walking away. 

Jordan walked into the break room where she was confronted by some employees who were drinking water, juice, or coffee and having various snacks, with some even having dinner. 

“Hello,” Jordan greeted meekly. 

An employee who was eating steak and potatoes was about to put another forkful in her mouth when she heard Jordan’s greeting. She put her fork down and looked up at her. 

“Are you a student here for an internship? You look a little young to be a college student though,” the employee said. 

“No, I’m not, my name is Jordan Conners, first-year student at Luna Nova, I’m just here because Mr. Clive requested my presence,” she responded. 

“Oh, okay, I’m Maria Pavlova, nice to meet you,” she said. 

“Nice to meet you,” Jordan said. 

Jordan was lost in her thoughts and Maria was about to go back to her meal when Jordan smacked her hands on the table startling the other employees. 

“What is it?” Maria asked. 

“Pavlova, that’s one of The Six Great Houses, right?” Jordan asked. 

“The last time I checked,” Maria said. 

“So Mr. Clive has a Chavla  _ and  _ a Pavlova working for him?” Jordan asked. 

“A Fei as well,” Maria said. 

“What?!” Jordan shrieked. 

Maria was sure that the whole office heard Jordan scream as they seemed to turn their heads to the source of the sound, putting their pointer fingers to the lips in a ‘shh’ motion. Jordan once again flushed with embarrassment at the attention she was receiving. 

“Sorry, sorry!” Jordan yelled out, apologizing. 

“It’s okay, just don’t do it again,” All the employees said in almost perfect unison. 

Soon after, Mr. Clive walked into the break room. 

“You sure caused a lot of commotion,” Mr. Clive laughed. 

Jordan just pouted as she left the break room and followed Mr. Clive again. He showed her the cubicles and then walked into his office, letting Jordan in first. 

“You’re letting me see your office?” Jordan asked. 

“Just one thing inside it,” Mr. Clive said. 

Jordan gave him a confused look as Mr. Clive went to his desk and pressed a button under it which opened a door with stairs leading underground. 

“Follow me,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Is it safe?” Jordan asked. 

“Yes,” Mr. Clive said simply as he started walking down the stairs. 

Jordan was scared but trusted Mr. Clive and followed him down the stairs. When they got to the bottom they were faced with a dimly lit room, a chamber in the middle of it, and a desk to the right of it, where Rathika was standing waiting for them. 

“Wait here,” Mr. Clive said to Jordan before walking up to Rathika. 

Jordan was too shocked to move anyway, she stood at the entrance frozen, mouth agape. 

_ “What the hell? Mr. Clive has a secret lair? Diana was right? I can’t believe this!”  _ Jordan thought. 

Mr. Clive walked back to Jordan, now with a flower in his hands. 

“You better believe it,” Mr. Clive said. 

_ “Did I say that out loud? Did he invade my thoughts without me noticing?”  _ Jordan thought. 

“What do you mean?” Jordan asked. 

“Here, take this,” Mr. Clive said, extending the flower out for Jordan to take. 

Jordan took the flower and sniffed it. She immediately started feeling lightheaded and her vision started to blur. 

“What did you give me?” Jordan asked, speaking slurred. 

“It’s a flower infused with a chemical that puts the person who smells it to sleep,” Mr. Clive said. 

“Why? I trusted you and you used me,” Jordan said. 

“Everything happens for a reason,” Mr. Clive said ominously. 

Jordan was about to protest, but collapsed. The last thing she saw before she fell unconscious was Mr. Clive’s legs covered with black pants and his feet, wearing dark brown dress shoes. 


	22. Saved

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is the longest chapter in this story at like 4500 words, which in hindsight isn't actually a lot, but it's a lot for me. Anyway, enjoy this last chapter

The next day Jordan woke up to being trapped in a chamber, she looked over at Mr. Clive working at his desk and frowned. She banged on the glass of the chamber. 

“Let me out of here!” Jordan yelled out. 

Mr. Clive walked up to her and tapped on the glass, swiping a few fingers up and down it, relishing in his latest creation and the victim he captured. 

“No can do, Ms. Conners, you’re part of something so much bigger,” Mr. Clive said. 

“What do you mean?” Jordan asked. 

“You’re being used as a ploy,” Mr. Clive said simply. 

“A ploy?” Jordan asked with an evident confused expression on her face. 

“Yes, your friends are going to come and save you and they’ll be falling right into my trap,” Mr. Clive said, with a crushing fist motion. 

“They’ll break free,” Jordan said. 

“I’m not so sure about that,” Mr. Clive said, tapping the glass again. 

Jordan was slightly startled and moved back, hitting the back of the chamber, she was defeated, trapped and dragged her back along the back of the chamber to sit on the ground, knees up to her chest as she hugged them in fear and rocked back and forth. 

“Scared? Well you should be,” Mr. Clive cackled. 

“What are you going to do to me?” Jordan asked, voice cracking. 

“In a couple of hours you’ll start feeling weak and be unable to stand, let’s hope they manage to save you in the next 48 hours or else,” Mr. Clive said. 

“48 hours? What’s going to happen in 48 hours?” Jordan asked. 

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Mr. Clive said, going back to his desk. 

He started watching his crystal ball, observing the students of Luna Nova, well more so, The New Nine Witches. Jordan banged on the glass again with the back of her fist, weaker than before. Mr. Clive heard it and turned. 

“What do you want?” Mr. Clive asked, anger and frustration slipping through his tone. 

“What are you doing?” Jordan asked. 

“I’m watching your saviors,” Mr. Clive said. 

Jordan got up and walked to the corner of the chamber that was facing Mr. Clive’s desk and squinted to try and see the crystal ball that was sitting atop of it. She could slightly make out the figures of the two witches she was talking with just two days ago. 

_“Of course they’re together, why wouldn’t they be?”_ Jordan thought with a smile. 

Mr. Clive walked back over to her. 

“What are smiling so wide about?” Mr. Clive asked with a smirk. 

“My saviors, as you put them,” Jordan said with a smirk matching Mr. Clive’s. 

“Ah, well played,” Mr. Clive complimented. 

“Don’t you forget, I can be witty too,” Jordan said. 

“I could tell,” Mr. Clive said simply. 

Jordan nodded in understanding and Mr. Clive walked back over to his desk and went back to watch his crystal ball. 

* * *

Jessica and Rachel approached The New Nine Witches in a panic, panting and breathing heavily, it was clear that they were in a hurry and ran to find them. 

“What happened?” Akko asked.

“Jordan didn’t return to the room last night,” Jessica rushed out in a pant, bending down putting her palms to her knees. 

“We think she might’ve been taken by Mr. Clive,” Rachel said, also panting, mirroring the same action as Jessica. 

Diana put her hands on each of their shoulders. 

“Calm down, take a few deep breaths, then tell us exactly what happened,” Diana said. 

Jessica and Rachel looked at each other and then at Diana and nodded, heeding her advice. After taking a few calming breaths, they both opened their mouths to talk, ending up talking over each other and making wild gestures, recounting what they think happened. The other nine looked from one member of the indigo team to the other trying to keep up. Akko threw her arms up trying to gain their attention, they both immediately shut up. 

“One at a time, Jessica, you go first,” Akko said. 

“Thank you, that was getting too much to follow,” Amanda said. 

“Sorry, but who are the rest of you guys?” Rachel asked. 

“I’m Amanda,” she said, pointing a thumb towards herself. 

“Hannah,” she said. 

“Barbara,” she said. 

“Lotte,” she said. 

“Sucy,” she said. 

“Jasminka,” she said. 

“Constanze,” she wrote on her board. 

“Good to know, I was wondering who the rest of you guys were, Jordan mentioned you guys a few times, but I didn’t catch it fully,” Jessica said. 

“I don’t know why, but I’m kind of offended,” Hannah said. 

“Me too,” Amanda said. 

“How can you blame them? They only ever talked to Akko and Diana,” Barbara said. 

“That’s because we went to talk to them first,” Diana corrected. 

“We were going to ask Jordan about Mr. Clive and we met them as well,” Akko said. 

“I just sensed their power,” Jessica said, shrugging. 

“I just confirmed the rumor,” Rachel said, mimicking Jessica’s action once again. 

“We’re getting off-topic, back to Jordan, what happened?” Akko asked. 

“Well, you all know she was going to visit Mr. Clive, right?” Jessica asked. 

They all nodded and Jessica continued. 

“She was supposed to be back by curfew but she never returned back to the dorm and none of her professors have seen her, she was absent from all her classes, and she never misses a day, she prides herself on being on time to every class, so her not being there is definitely odd, so we thought that, maybe, Mr. Clive took her,” 

“Where though? They were just meeting at Clive Enterprises, unless Mr. Clive took her somewhere off the premises, or my theory about him having an underground lair is actually true, which I have a hard time believing myself,” Diana said. 

“Only one way to find out,” Rachel said. 

“Are you suggesting that we go to Clive Enterprises?” Diana asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“You and Akko are strong enough to take him, also, it’ll be eleven against one, maybe two, if he has Rathika with him, but still, he’ll have no chance,” Jessica said. 

“Yeah, Jessica’s right, we’re the nine strongest witches at Luna Nova, we can take Mr. Overconfident Rank 8,” Amanda said with pride, putting her hands on the other two team leader’s shoulders, looking towards the other eight. 

“Now who’s overconfident,” Diana said, rolling her eyes. 

“I’m just prideful,” Amanda said, pouting, crossing her arms. 

“That’s probably exactly what Mr. Clive thinks, he probably thinks he knows exactly what he’s up against, but that will be his downfall, right guys?” Akko asked, looking expectantly at her friends. 

“So… what are we waiting for?” Jessica asked. 

“Yeah, let’s get Jordan back!” Akko declared, pumping her fist up in the air. 

“Yeah, let’s get our teammate back,” Jessica agreed, putting an arm around Rachel. 

* * *

The eleven witches stood in front of the building. 

“Woah! It’s huge!” Akko gaped, looking up and down the building reaching from the ground to the sky. 

“Well, it is like the third tallest building in London,” Jessica deadpanned. 

“Just behind The Shard and One Canada Square standing at 764 ft high,” Diana said. 

“Why does it need to be so tall if his real work is underground?” Akko asked. 

“We don’t know that yet,” Diana pointed out. 

“Then why don’t we find out,” Rachel said, walking into the building. 

They followed Rachel and entered the building, being stopped by the receptionist. 

“Are you authorized to be here?” the receptionist asked. 

“Is Jordan Conners here?” Jessica asked. 

“According to my log, she was here yesterday from 16:00 to 19:30,” the receptionist said. 

Jessica turned to the rest of the witches standing there, all of them sporting the same confused expression, she turned back to the receptionist. 

“That’s not right, she never returned to Luna Nova yesterday, your log can’t be right,” Jessica accused, pointing her index finger at the sign-in/out clipboard on the receptionist’s desk. 

“I’m sorry, you have to take that up with my boss, if that’s the case,” the receptionist said, putting her arms halfway up in surrender. 

Suddenly, Rathika walked up to the receptionist and put some folders on the desk. 

“Can you organize these for me, Riley?” Rathika asked the receptionist. 

“Right away, ma’am,” Riley said and filed the folders away. 

Rathika was about to walk away when Riley called out to her. 

“Wait!” 

Rathika turned back to her. 

“What is it?” Rathika asked. 

“You’re the boss’s assistant, right?” Riley asked. 

“Yes, do you need something?” Rathika asked. 

“Can you help these young girls out? They’re looking for… who did you say again?” Riley asked. 

“Jordan Conners,” Jessica said. 

Rathika flinched at the mention of her name, she knew exactly where she was and who the people in front of her were. 

“Oh, yes, Mr. Clive’s been expecting you,” Rathika said. 

“He has?” everyone questioned in unison, including Riley. 

“Yes, follow me,” Rathika said, waving her hand to usher them forward. 

Rathika called Mr. Clive, he picked up after the first couple rings. 

“Why are you calling, Rathika?” Mr. Clive said. 

“They’re here, just as you said they’d be,” Rathika said. 

“Perfect, send them down,” Mr. Clive said. 

Rathika said yes and then hung up the phone. She guided the group to Mr. Clive’s office and pressed the button under his desk which exposed a staircase leading down. 

“I was right?” Diana muttered. 

“I apologize, what was that?” Rathika asked. 

“Nothing,” Diana squeaked out a little louder. 

“Okay, then. Follow me down,” Rathika said. 

The eleven teenagers followed the Indian woman down the dark stairwell, only lit by a few torches by the sides of it. They got to the bottom of the stairs and were met with a room with a chamber in the middle and a desk to the right of it where Mr. Clive was standing, he turned to greet them. 

“Hello, witches of Luna Nova, glad you could join us,” Mr. Clive said. 

“I guess the whole thing with the apple tarts was a cover after all,” Akko said. 

“Yes, Ms. Kagari, it was, but I assure you, I really wanted to do something to thank you, I’m not as evil or heartless as I seem,” Mr. Clive said. 

“This underground lair you have seems pretty evil to me,” Amanda said. 

“This is just for my experiments, I’m a wizard, but as the CEO of Clive Enterprises I can’t use magic,” Mr. Clive said. 

“What’s the chamber for then?” Amanda asked, pointing to it. 

“You want to know where Jordan is?” Mr. Clive asked. 

“That’s the whole reason we’re here,” Akko said. 

Mr. Clive tapped on the chamber. 

“Jordan?” Mr. Clive said. 

“Yes?” Jordan asked weakly. 

The other witches went wide-eyed. 

“What are you doing to her?” Akko cried out, running up to the chamber and banging her fist against the glass. 

“This chamber is made to take people’s magic,” Mr. Clive said. 

“What?!” everyone cried out in surprise. 

“I connected those tubes to her a while ago and it’s started funneling out the magic and storing it in another place,” Mr. Clive said. 

“No wonder she’s so weak, I can barely feel her aura,” Jessica said. 

“In only 36 hours, she’ll no longer be able to use magic,” Mr. Clive said. 

Little did he know, while he was saying this Diana was on a call with Professor Ursula and Akko was on a call with Croix, they were hearing everything that was coming out of their mouths. 

“That’s terrible,” Rachel said, clutching the top of her shirt, trying to hold back tears from falling down her face. 

“But Jordan’s not who you’re really after, is she?” Diana asked. 

“You’re quite perceptive, Ms. Cavendish, no she’s not,” Mr. Clive said. 

“You want Akko and I, am I right?” Diana asked, trying to hide the amusement out of her voice. 

“So you _are_ smarter than I thought you were,” Mr. Clive said mischievously. 

**“Murowa,”** someone cast out of nowhere. 

The sudden spell came in so quickly that Mr. Clive had no time to react, he was knocked to the ground. The others turned to the source of the spell, seeing bright red hair waving in the dimly lit room. 

“Professor!,” Akko cried out. 

Diana took her phone out of her pocket and hung up the call. 

“I heard everything and came as soon as I could,” Professor Ursula said. 

Suddenly, Croix emerged from behind them, riding on her roomba. This time it was Akko’s turn to hang up the phone. 

“Me too,” Croix said. 

Mr. Clive shook himself off and got up, walking up to them. 

“Chariot du Nord and Croix Meridies, today’s just full of surprises,” Mr. Clive said. 

“I won’t let you hurt my students,” Professor Ursula said, holding out her wand. 

“Wait, how did you even get here? You can’t fly a broom,” Croix said. 

“And who’s fault was that? Headmistress Holbrooke flew me,” Professor Ursula said. 

“I’m sorry, I’m getting close to a cure though,” Croix said. 

Mr. Clive sprayed something from a bottle, coating the room in a black perfume-like substance. It cleared and the witches started feeling drowsy. 

“What was that?” Akko asked drowsily. 

“It must be a potion of some sorts,” Diana said, in much the same manner as Akko. 

“Damn you, Mr. Clive,” Amanda cursed weakly. 

They all fell unconscious and when they woke they were in cells. There were four cells, the first holding Akko, Amanda, and Hannah, the second holding Lotte, Sucy, and Diana, the third holding, Constanze, Jasminka, and Barbara, and the fourth holding, Professor Ursula, Croix, Jessica, and Rachel. 

_“God, just my luck, I get stuck with the two soulmates who haven’t realized they’re soulmates,”_ Akko thought. 

_“You got stuck with Hannah and Amanda?”_ Diana asked. 

_“Yeah, who’d you get stuck with?”_ Akko asked. 

_“Your teammates,”_ Diana said. 

_“At least you don’t have this incessant glowing bothering you, if they don’t realize it now, I’m not sure they ever will,”_ Akko said. 

_“I’m sure they will,”_ Diana replied. 

Akko tried grabbing the bars of the cell, but they were just too tough to break. She grabbed her wand. 

**“Murowa,”** she cast. 

It did nothing to the cell. 

“What the heck was that, Akko? Did you think that would work?” Hannah asked. 

“It was worth a try,” Akko said, shrugging. 

“Let’s cast it together, maybe it will be stronger,” Amanda said. 

“If you think that will do anything, you're sorely mistaken,” Mr. Clive said from his desk. 

“I will never know if I don’t try,” Akko said. 

“If you say so,” Mr. Clive said. 

All three of them cast **Murowa** together, but Mr. Clive was right as it had no effect on the cell. 

_“What did you do?”_ Diana asked. 

_“We tried casting_ **_Murowa_ ** _on the cell,”_ Akko said. 

_“That’s actually…. not a bad idea,”_ Diana said. 

_“Don’t try, it won’t work,”_ Akko said dejectedly. 

_“We’ll get out of here. It’s not like you to just give up, what happened to the spunky, cheerful, headstrong girl that refused to back down from a fight, who declared me your rival just because you wanted to aim for the top, who came all the way to my estate just to bring me back, who proposed flying our brooms into to space to stop the missile?”_ Diana asked. 

Akko smiled at her soulmate’s encouragement. 

_“Is there a way to combine our power to cast a stronger spell?”_ Akko asked. 

“Wait! I finally understand, Hannah, you’re my soulmate!” Amanda cried out in realization. 

“Huh?” Hannah asked, sporting a confused expression. 

“I finally understand what Akko was telling us,” Amanda said, grabbing Hannah’s hands. 

Hannah blushed at the sudden movement and averted her gaze. 

“Finally! You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Akko said. 

Amanda grabbed her necklace and brought it closer to link it with Hannah’s, it created a flash, equal to Barbara and Lotte’s, maybe slightly larger, but not by much. They kissed and Akko flashed two thumbs up at them. 

“So now we have four pairs of soulmates here, I wonder who has the strongest connection,” Mr. Clive said in a pondering tone, rubbing his chin. 

_“There might be a way,”_ Diana said. 

_“Really? How?”_ Akko asked. 

_“I just need to focus on funneling power to you,”_ Diana said. 

_“It’s really that simple?”_ Akko asked. 

_“Our already strong connection plays a big part, I just need to focus,”_ Diana said. 

Akko could feel more power surging through her, she could also feel the difference in both their powers as they combined, it was like fire and ice, she felt her blood run cold as Diana concentrated more power towards her. 

_“Try casting_ **_Murowa_ ** _again,”_ Diana instructed. 

Akko did as she was told. 

**“Murowa,”**

The bars on the cell started to crack. 

_“It’s cracking!”_ Akko exclaimed in victory. 

_“Don’t celebrate yet, we still have to stop Mr. Clive,”_ Diana said. 

**“Murowa,”** Akko cast again. 

The bars cracked even more, now it only took one more cast to break through them. 

**“Murowa,”** Akko cast once more. 

The bars of the cell finally broke, allowing Akko, Amanda, and Hannah to escape. 

“So you managed to escape. I guess I got my answer,” Mr. Clive said. 

Akko cast **Murowa** nine more times in total to release everyone else. 

“I see that Hannah and Amanda finally figured it out,” Diana whispered to Akko. 

Akko nodded and held hands with Diana and she shivered as she felt her power come back to her. They looked at the chamber and noticed Jordan getting visibly weaker and to the point of passing out. 

“Please stop!” Akko pleaded. 

“It’s already too late,” Mr. Clive said. 

Akko looked up to the clock in the room. 

“No, it’s not, we still have two hours left,” Akko said. 

“If you think that’s enough time to stop me, you’re welcome to try,” Mr. Clive said. 

They gladly took him up on his offer and took out their wands. The four couples holding a wand together and the other five holding their own. 

**“Murowa,”** they all cast. 

Their spells came together and formed one blast, knocking down Mr. Clive, and for good measure, 

**“Luna Lana,”** Akko and Diana cast in unison. 

“Someone call the police, they can handle the rest,” Diana said. 

Professor Ursula gladly pulled out her phone and called 999 while Croix called the Ministry. 

“You’ve reached the London Police Department, what is your emergency?” the operator asked. 

“I’m calling to report a kidnapping at 2459 S. Clive Ave.,” Professor Ursula said. 

“That’s the address of Clive Enterprises, right? We’ll be there right away,” the operator said and then hung up. 

“They’re on their way,” Professor Ursula told the others. 

“Croix? Is everything all right? Do I need to send an official?” the Ministry receptionist asked. 

“Yes, we’ve had a problem with Mr. Clive, we’ve already called the police, this is just a precaution,” Croix said. 

“Okay, I’ll send in Crowley,” the receptionist said. 

“Great,” Croix said and then hung up. 

“I called The Ministry as well, they’re sending Crowley,” Croix told the others. 

“Let’s free Jordan,” Akko said, pointing to the chamber. 

They nodded and cast **Murowa** again to break the chamber, the glass shattering everywhere. Being careful not to cut themselves, they undid the tubes attached to Jordan and broke them as well, releasing the magic that was being held inside of them, allowing it to return to Jordan. She immediately felt reenergized and no longer felt as weak as before. 

“Thank you! You saved me!” Jordan exclaimed, engulfing the other witches in a bear hug. 

“You’re welcome,” they said. 

The police and Crowley arrived and Jordan let go of them. 

“I heard there was a kidnapping?” the officer questioned. 

“Yes, Mr. Clive trapped me in a chamber, which these witches destroyed,” Jordan said. 

The police officer opened a notepad and started writing down some notes. 

“What is your name? It’s so I can record your testimony,” the officer said. 

“Jordan Conners,” she said. 

“Okay, Jordan, can you tell me exactly what happened here?” the officer said. 

“Yesterday, Mr. Clive invited me to come visit his place of work, he gave me a tour and then took me down here, where he gave me a flower infused with a chemical that put me to sleep, which I assume is how he got me in the chamber, he didn’t tell me what it was for, but I later realized that it took my magic, because I felt weak all of the sudden, for no reason at all, then a few hours later, these other witches came to save me, that’s why Mr. Clive is currently knocked unconscious,” Jordan told. 

The officer wrote all of this down and then walked over to Mr. Clive laying on the ground, he turned him to his stomach, put his hands behind his back and clasped handcuffs on him. He woke up a few moments later and the officer lifted him off the ground and stood him up. 

“Madison Clive, you’re under arrest for endangering and kidnapping a minor, knowingly attempting to steal a witch’s magic,

Akko, Diana, and Professor Ursula cringed at this charge, knowing full well what the latter attempted to do in the past. 

illegally operating a lair under your building, and finally administering possibly harmful potions and chemicals on others,” the officer said. 

“You’re also stripped of your rank in the magic-users of the world list, you are now Rank: 10,097,156 instead of 8 and The New Nine Witches of Luna Nova are now all ranked in the top 1000, and the indigo team is ranked in the top 10000, I think that’s fair, do you not?” Crowley asked. 

“It appears I  _ did  _ underestimate the power they hold, they deserve it,” Mr. Clive conceded.

“Good, I’m glad you agree,” Crowley said. 

“We’re taking you away now, Mr. Clive,” the officer said, grabbing his arms and dragging him back up the stairs, out of the building. 

"I never thought a group of teenagers would be the ones to beat me, I guess I really got put in my place, teaches me to never try something like that again,” Mr. Clive laughed dejectedly as he was put into the police car. 

All of his employees looked with confused expressions as their boss got taken away by the police. The rest of the people walked back up and Crowley sealed off the entrance to the lair so that no one else could enter, the officer also put caution tape over the entrance and the door to his office. 

“Clive Enterprises should find new ownership since Madison made it abundantly clear that he won’t be returning anytime soon,” Crowley said. 

The officer walked up to Rathika and also put cuffs around her. 

“Rathika Chavla, you’re also under arrest for corroborating and assisting in the kidnapping and trapping of minors. Crowley told me that the seals on the cells and chamber were clearly the work of a Chavla and every Chavla has their own mark, this so happens to be yours,” the officer said, holding up a drawing of one of Rathika’s seal marks. 

Rathika looked at it and ducked her head. 

“Yes, that’s the mark of my seal, you can take me,” Rathika said. 

The officer took Rathika and put her in the car as well. He drove off with the two prisoners. 

“What did I say?” Amanda asked, smirking, trying to keep the teasing out of her voice. 

“You were right,” Diana conceded. 

“Hah! The mighty Cavendish admitted _I_ was right!” Amanda said triumphantly, bragging. 

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you O’Neill?” Diana asked. 

“Nope! This is probably the only time I’ll ever hear you even utter the words ‘you were right’ to me, I’m going to savor this,” Amanda said. 

“I was going to say to not let it go to your head, but it seems you’ve already let it,” Diana said. 

“Amanda’s sometimes too prideful for her own good,” Akko and Hannah said in unison. 

“I’m aware,” Diana said. 

“So…. can we go back to school?” Akko asked. 

“Yes, you are free to go, we’ll take care of the rest, Mr. Clive and Rathika Chavla will no longer be able to harm you guys, I’m not sure about other member’s of their respective families, but at least I can assure you those two. Rathika also got her rank stripped, she is now Rank: 24,305,675 instead of 9,” Crowley said. 

“Wait, does that mean I’m back in the top 100?” Diana asked. 

“Indeed, Ms. Cavendish, but you should see that for yourself,” Crowley said. 

“Thank you,” Diana said. 

“For what? You guys did most of the work already,” Crowley said. 

“Well, you have to deal with the legal side and all of that, right?” Akko asked. 

“Yes, that is part of The Ministry’s job, to deal with people misusing magic, so while Madison Clive is going to jail, he’s a wizard as well, so we have to step in on some parts,” Crowley said. 

“Thank you, Crowley,” Croix said. 

“For goodness sake, call me Greg, Croix, how many times to have to say that?” he asked. 

“Everybody at The Ministry goes by their last names, it’s just easier for me to call you Crowley,” Croix said. 

“But you said for me to call you Croix, it’s rude not to offer the same sentiment to you,” Crowley said. 

“Okay, fine, I’ll call you Greg,” Croix said. 

“Good, let’s go back to the Ministry, Croix,” Greg said. 

“Yes, let’s go Crow-, Greg,” Croix corrected herself. 

Croix and Greg left Clive Enterprises and went back to the Ministry, leaving the four teams and Professor Ursula to their own devices. 

“Let’s go, I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to,” Amanda said and walked out the building. 

“Wait up! I don’t want to be here anymore either, you can’t just leave us behind!” Akko cried out running out of the building behind Amanda. 

“Then run quicker!” Amanda yelled out. 

“Can you guys just calm down for one second!” Diana cried out, chasing after them. 

Everybody else just smiled and laughed as they ran to catch up to the others. They mounted their brooms and flew back to Luna Nova. 

“That was an eventful time,” Akko said as they walked through the hallway. 

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about it anymore,” Diana said. 

“I wonder if we’ll have another adventure next year,” Akko said. 

“With you, I’m sure we will, I’ve come to learn that with you in my life, I’ll never learn peace, but it’s just another thing I love about you, you keep my life interesting,” Diana said, offering a soft smile. 

Akko looked at her and smiled back, nodding vehemently. They walked to class, just like normal. Jordan was back, Mr. Clive and Rathika were no longer able to harm anyone else and the rest of the year went great, but little did they know, starting September a new fourth-year transfer would turn their lives upside down. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that brings us to the end of The Mysterious Glow of a Murderer, stay tuned for the third book in The "Glow" Series, The Stolen Glow, the first chapter posting on September 26th. Stay happy, safe, and weird my fellow readers and writers, if you're out there.


End file.
